''L'Albatros'' (French for ''The Albatross''), is a poem by

decadent The word decadence, which at first meant simply "decline" in an abstract sense, is now most often used to refer to a perceived decay in standards, morals, dignity, religious faith, honor, discipline, or skill at governing among the members of ...

French poet List of poets who have written in the French language: A * Louise-Victorine Ackermann (1813–1890) * Adam de la Halle (v.1250 – v.1285) * Pierre Albert-Birot (1876–1967) * Anne-Marie Albiach (1937–2012) * Pierre Alféri (1963) * Marc ...

Charles Baudelaire Charles Pierre Baudelaire (, ; ; 9 April 1821 – 31 August 1867) was a French poetry, French poet who also produced notable work as an essayist and art critic. His poems exhibit mastery in the handling of rhyme and rhythm, contain an exoticis ...

. The poem, inspired by an incident on Baudelaire's trip to

Bourbon Island Bourbon may refer to: Food and drink * Bourbon whiskey, an American whiskey made using a corn-based mash * Bourbon barrel aged beer, a type of beer aged in bourbon barrels * Bourbon biscuit, a chocolate sandwich biscuit * A beer produced by Br ...

in 1841, was begun in 1842 but not completed until 1859 with the addition of the final verse. It was first published in ' in 1859, and was printed as the second poem in the second edition (1861) of Baudelaire's ''

Les Fleurs du mal ''Les Fleurs du mal'' (; en, The Flowers of Evil, italic=yes) is a volume of French poetry by Charles Baudelaire. ''Les Fleurs du mal'' includes nearly all Baudelaire's poetry, written from 1840 until his death in August 1867. First publish ...

''. Italian writer, literary critic, and university professor gave the poem a full treatment in his 1994 book ''L'albatros di Baudelaire''.

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The poem is located in the section "''Spleen et Idéal''". It is built with four

alexandrin The French alexandrine (french: alexandrin) is a syllabic poetic metre of (nominally and typically) 12 syllables with a medial caesura dividing the line into two hemistichs (half-lines) of six syllables each. It was the dominant long line of Frenc ...

quatrain A quatrain is a type of stanza, or a complete poem, consisting of four lines. Existing in a variety of forms, the quatrain appears in poems from the poetic traditions of various ancient civilizations including Persia, Ancient India, Ancient Greec ...

s with crossed

Rhyme A rhyme is a repetition of similar sounds (usually, the exact same phonemes) in the final stressed syllables and any following syllables of two or more words. Most often, this kind of perfect rhyming is consciously used for a musical or aesthetic ...

s (ABAB type), alternating feminine and masculine noun genders.

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References

Further reading