Albert Ross's cards

Albert Ross's cards symbolize the randomness of death and loss. The cards are once referred to as 'Albat Ross Feathers' (190); the albatross that hangs around Eddie's neck is loss. In The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, Death and Life-in-Death gamble for the lives of the Mariner and his crew; the idea that Eddie's albatross is feathered in cards suggests that his loss is unpredictable or random, or a result of some kind of cruel cosmic game.