"THE ALBATROSS" By Kate Bass

Reading the poem out loud the first time I had no idea what it was about. So by reading the poem about five more times I really tried to understand the meaning of it. I didn't know what albatross meant so I looked it up and it is a seemingly inescapable moral or emotional burden, as of guilt or responsibility. Then I was able to get an idea of what the poem could mean. The narrator of this poem is a woman who I think is known to be "The Albatross". It seems to me that she fakes the love she has for her husband/boyfriend by putting on the necklace I'm assuming he bought for her. She attempts to only put on the necklace right before he comes home. The woman explains how she reaches down to pick up her child, so she must have a child for him. She also seem like she's a stay at home mom.

 

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In the first stanza when she puts on the necklace she says how she hope to remember him and to think that he won't forget. Could it be that they relationship is falling apart? Maybe she wants to remember how he used to be or how their relationship use to be. What does the necklace symbolize? She describes the necklace "a blue that used to match my eyes" (line). What does she mean by that? How could her eye color change? Could it mean that she doesn't have eyes for him anymore, meaning she's no longer attracted to him?

In the second stanza, the first line, she states, "The necklace lies heavy on my skin" (line 7). Could the heaviness of the necklace symbolize that it is an emotional burden? Is she stressed or overwhelmed? If so, why? I think since the child might be his she may feel like she is bound or obliged to stay with him for the sake of their child. Does she feel like if she took his daughter and left him would she be the blame of the child not growing up with a father figure in her life? Does she feel like she is going to be accountable for explaining to her daughter why she left her father when she grows up? It seems to me that the couple is fairly young. Are they or were they teenage parents at the time they had their little girl?

The mother wishes away to afternoon and waits to hear the gate open and the key in the door. She illustrates how she hasn't done the laundry or put up the toys on the floor. I'm getting a sense that she has some sort of rebellion. She is probably tired of feeling like she is bound to do those things simply because they have a daughter together. Maybe she doesn’t want to take the responsibilities of the role of a wife, but at the same time she's thinking about her daughter.

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At the end, she explains how his voice doesn't sound familiar anymore but strange. Why is that so? This poem is very interesting to me but it is frustrating that I can't really grasp the meaning. This poem left me with a ton of question that I want answers to. Maybe the narrator left out so much information so the readers can brainstorm their own meaning of the poem.