The Albatross

L'Albatros (French for The Albatross) is a poem by decadent French poet Charles Baudelaire. The poem, inspired by an incident on Baudelaire's trip to Bourbon Island in 1841, was begun in 1842 but not completed until 1859 with the addition of the final verse. It was first published in La Revue française in 1859, and was printed as the second poem in the second edition (1861) of Baudelaire's Les Fleurs du mal. Italian writer, literary critic, and university professor Antonio Prete gave the poem a full treatment in his 1994 book L'albatros di Baudelaire. The poem is recited by a young Roman Coppola in the "French Plantation" scene of Apocalypse Now Redux.