Albatross (metaphor) Albatross (metaphor) The word albatross is sometimes used metaphorically to mean a psychological burden that feels like a curse. It is an allusion to Samuel Taylor Coleridge's poem "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" (1798). In the poem, an albatross starts to follow a ship — being followed by an albatross was generally considered a sign of good luck. However, the titular mariner shoots the albatross with a crossbow, which is regarded as an act that will curse the ship (which indeed suffers terrible mishaps). Even when they are too thirsty to speak, the ship's crew let the mariner know
Coleridge Cottage As well as writing poetry he was a literary critic and philosopher who, with his friend William Wordsworth, was a founder of the Romantic Movement in England and a member of the Lake Poets. It was while he was living in Nether Stowey that Coleridge wrote "This Lime-Tree Bower My Prison", "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner", part of "Christabel", and "Frost at Midnight". While writing "Kubla Khan; or, A Vision in a Dream: A Fragment", Coleridge was said to have been interrupted by the arrival of a "Person from Porlock". It is unclear whether this really happened or was