The Albatross|Charles Baudelaire

Often to pass the time on board, the crew

will catch an albatross, one of those big birds

which nonchalantly chaperon a ship

across the bitter fathoms of the sea

Tied to the deck, this sovereign of space

as if embarrassed by its clumsiness

pitiably lets its great white wings

drag at its sides like a pair of unshipped oars

How weak and awkward, even comical

this traveller but lately so adoit -

one deckhand sticks a pipestem in its beak

another mocks the cripple that once flew

The Poet is like this monarch of the clouds

riding the storm above the marksman's range

exiled on the ground, hooted and jeered

he cannot walk because of his great wings