“The Albatross” — Charles Baudelaire

Often, to amuse themselves, the sailors
Catch albatrosses, vast birds of the seas,
Who follow, indolent companions of the voyage,
The ship gliding on the bitter gulfs.
Hardly have they placed them on the deck,
Than these kings of the azure, awkward and ashamed,
Let their great white wings drag beside them
Like oars dragging in the water.
This winged traveler, so beautiful and so weak,
Once free, awkward and ashamed,
Seems, with his giant white wings,
To be a clown upon the ground.
The poet is like this prince of the clouds
Who haunts the storm and laughs at the archer;
Exiled on the ground, amidst jeers of the crowd,
His giant wings prevent him from walking.