Albatross Around Your Neck

Albatross Around Your Neck : Phrases

Meaning:

Burdened by stigma or shame from a past deed.


Example:

Your choice - you can put that job firing behind you, or wear it like an albatross around your neck.


Origin:

From Samuel Taylor Coleridge's poem "The Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner". An albatross, a symbol of good luck, landed on the ship and was killed by the captain while the ship was becalmed. The killing was thought to be the reason for a prolonged ecalming. The Captain was forced to wear the albatross as a reminder of the wronghe had done.

God save thee, ancient Mariner
From the fiends, that plague thee thus
Why look'st thou so ? - With my cross-bow
I shot the ALBATROSS.
...
Ah. well a-day. what evil looks
Had I from old and young
Instead of the cross, the Albatross
About my neck was hung.

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