Often, for recreation, sailors on ships (some times for sport the men of loafing crews
catch some albatrosses, which are huge sea birds, (snake the great albatrosses of the deep,
they, These lazy sailing companions (the indolent companies of their cruise
) fly behind the ships that have drifted across the sea of misery. (as through the bitters they sweep.
The sailors just put them on the deck, (Scarce have they fished about the sea kings
These clumsy and shy kings of the blue sky, (when helpful on such uncaccustomed floors,
just put the big white wings, how pitiful, (they piteously droop their white wings
hanging down beside them like sculls. (and trail them at their sides like driving oars.
How timid and dull this winged passenger is! (how comic, how ugly, and how meek
It was so beautiful, but it looked ugly and funny! (Appears this soarer of celestial snows!
one sailor teased his big mouth with a pipe, (one sailor bums them with his pipe, his mate
the other tiptoed to imitate a flying cripple! (One, limping, mocks the cricket as he goes.
The king and poet in the sky are the same as you, (The poem, like this monarch of the clouds,
You haunt the storm and laugh at the archers; (despising archers, rides the stormelate.
Once banished to the ground and caught in the jeers, (but, stranded on the earth to jeering crowds,
giant wings actually hinder walking. (The great wings of the giant baulk his gait.