“The Albatross” by Kate Bass is about a housewife uneasily awaiting her husband’s return with her young daughter, with the theme being one of falling out of love and an unhappy marriage, with the wife wishing in vain that she could preserve the time when she and her husband were untroubled. The poem can be found at the site Poetry Out Loud (http://www.poetryoutloud.org/poem/237550).
The poem is a first person, free-verse short story about a moment in a woman’s life that she is dreading: her husband’s return home. In the first stanza, the woman, though sounding defeated, puts on a blue glass-beaded necklace that her husband presumably bought for her back when they were happy and her eyes were brighter. The necklace lies heavily on her neck in the second stanza and rattles as she bends over to pick up her screaming daughter, setting a weighty and weary tone. She calms the child with an disinterested ease that most likely came from years of practice. The two sit waiting in front of the TV in a messy room, and the woman wishes that her husband wouldn’t return. Then, in the third and final stanza, the gate latch is lifted and a key turns in the lock, and the husband speaks in a voice that the wife can barely recognize. As the wife turns, the daughter tugs on the beaded …show more content…
Though many readers may not understand the allusion, the author’s smart decision to name the poem after said allusion may have prompted some to wonder and ask why she named it so, thus leading them to the original source and broadening their understanding of the poem’s meaning. While short, simple, and quite direct, the poem conveys deep and weighty feelings of melancholy and reserved hope. The weakest part of the poem is its indifferent rhyme scheme, as it flows unevenly in some places. However, that does help set the tone, as the tone itself is defeated and
The poem is a first person, free-verse short story about a moment in a woman’s life that she is dreading: her husband’s return home. In the first stanza, the woman, though sounding defeated, puts on a blue glass-beaded necklace that her husband presumably bought for her back when they were happy and her eyes were brighter. The necklace lies heavily on her neck in the second stanza and rattles as she bends over to pick up her screaming daughter, setting a weighty and weary tone. She calms the child with an disinterested ease that most likely came from years of practice. The two sit waiting in front of the TV in a messy room, and the woman wishes that her husband wouldn’t return. Then, in the third and final stanza, the gate latch is lifted and a key turns in the lock, and the husband speaks in a voice that the wife can barely recognize. As the wife turns, the daughter tugs on the beaded …show more content…
Though many readers may not understand the allusion, the author’s smart decision to name the poem after said allusion may have prompted some to wonder and ask why she named it so, thus leading them to the original source and broadening their understanding of the poem’s meaning. While short, simple, and quite direct, the poem conveys deep and weighty feelings of melancholy and reserved hope. The weakest part of the poem is its indifferent rhyme scheme, as it flows unevenly in some places. However, that does help set the tone, as the tone itself is defeated and