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The Albatross - Charles Baudelaire | Poetry Poster

The Albatross - Charles Baudelaire | Poetry Poster

€35,00 EUR
€35,00 EUR
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  • Poster created in France
  • Papier 100% éco-responsable100% eco-friendly paper
  • Livraison sous 3 à 4 jours ouvrésDelivery within 3 to 4 business days.

Read the full text of "The Albatross" and our analysis →

"Their giant wings hinder them from walking."

The text of "The Albatross" and what it's about

"The Albatross" opens the Spleen and Ideal section of Les Fleurs du Mal in the 1861 edition. Baudelaire recounts a scene he witnessed during his trip to Mauritius in 1841: sailors capture an albatross for entertainment, and the bird, sovereign in the sky, becomes grotesque once it's on the deck.

The first three stanzas describe the scene; the fourth turns it into a comparison. The poet is this albatross: master in his element, hindered in the ordinary world. It is one of the most studied texts in middle and high school, and one of the most quoted formulas in French poetry.

What does Baudelaire's "The Albatross" mean?

Baudelaire's "The Albatross" compares the poet to a large seabird: majestic in flight, ridiculous as soon as it lands on a ship's deck, where sailors mock it. The last stanza explicitly states the comparison, with the line "Their giant wings hinder them from walking": what makes the poet superior is also what makes him unsuited to the ordinary world.

Which collection is "The Albatross" from?

"The Albatross" appears in Charles Baudelaire's Les Fleurs du Mal, in second position in the Spleen and Ideal section. The poem was not in the original 1857 edition; Baudelaire added it to the 1861 edition.

What size should I choose for this "The Albatross" poster?

This "The Albatross" poster is available in 30 x 40 cm, 40 x 50 cm, and 50 x 70 cm. The 30 x 40 cm size is suitable for a hallway, office, or gallery wall; the 50 x 70 cm size stands alone above a sofa or bed. The frame is not included; the sizes are standard and can be found commercially.

A gift idea for a Baudelaire reader, a literature teacher, a high school student preparing for the French baccalaureate, or anyone who has ever felt a little cramped on deck.

Features and sizes

Available sizes: 30 x 40 cm, 40 x 50 cm, 50 x 70 cm
Paper: uncoated matte 170 g/m², FSC certified
Printing: high resolution, colorfast over time
Frame: not included
Print medium: poster, art print on matte paper
Theme: poetry, literature
Average delivery times: 3 working days, carefully packaged

Posters sold individually

These posters need to be framed by you :)
We choose standard formats that are easy to frame!

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Close-up of the grain of our uncoated matte 170 gsm FSC-certified paper
The paper grain, up close.

Heure d'été Editions

Beautiful words deserve beautiful paper

These verses are set to be hung: a chosen typeface, measured margins, white space worked around the text. It is this layout that makes you want to read them again.

The paper is an uncoated matte 170 gsm. Its surface stays slightly fibrous, the ink sinks in, the light spreads across it. You read it the way you read a book.

It is FSC certified, so it comes from sustainably managed forests, and printed as close to you as possible to shorten transport.

Hanging a poem is not the same as reading it once. The text stays there, you catch two lines in passing, and the day pauses for a second. It is a moment you give yourself, and offer to those who live with you.

There is a quiet pleasure in living with French literature in the original. The poem keeps the language it was written in, and with it the sound the writer chose, which no translation quite carries over. On an English-speaking wall it stops being decoration and becomes something with a little cachet: a piece of France you can read on your way past, every morning.

It earns the large format. At 50x70 cm the text is read from across the room, and the page holds a wall the way a painting does.

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