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Coleridge's poem was based on the dream of a neighbor, John Cruikshank, who was not a poet. Wordsworth suggested the symbol of the Albatross with which so much of the poem is concerned. The author attempts in this study to search out the unconscious motivations behind this extraordinary collaboration. From evidence in the life histories of the two poets and from data in Coleridge's letters and notes, the author concludes that in both cases the Albatross symbolizes a lost love object, to Coleridge the ambivalently loved preoedipal mother whom the child kills in his fantasy, and to Wordsworth the betrayed and forsaken lover, Annette Vallon. The author describes the different defenses which Coleridge and Wordsworth utilize in their attempts to deal with their guilt. Coleridge with his basic oral character attempts in the poem to restore the lost love object and by submission to expiate his guilt. In life Coleridge failed and his biography is the tragic record of a futile struggle against addiction, hypochondriasis, and depression. Wordsworth with his defenses of isolation and repression succeeded in avoiding the distress of his colleague.
The author emphasizes the limitations of this study which deals particularly