• Often, to amuse themselves, the crew of the ship
    Would fell an albatross, the largest of sea birds,
    Indolent companions of their trip
    As they slide across the deep sea's bitters.

    Scarcely had they dropped to the plank
    Than these blue kings, maladroit and ashamed
    Let their great white wings sink
    Like an oar dragging under the water's plane.

    The winged visitor, so awkward and weak!
    So recently beautiful, now comic and ugly!
    One sailor grinds a pipe into his beak,
    Another, limping, mimics the infirm bird that once could fly.

    The poet is like the prince of the clouds
    Who haunts the storm and laughs at lightning.
    He's exiled to the ground and its hooting crowds;
    His giant wings prevent him from walking.