| Coleridge's ode Dejection is a record of his mental | | | | the very stuff of misfortune. |
| depression. When Coleridge wrote it in 1802, his | | | | But those days are past, and now the poet's |
| marriage with Sara Fricker was near collapse and he | | | | distress, along with his continued search for |
| also feared that the poet in him was dying. | | | | pain-relieving drugs, have repressed his birthright, his |
| Coleridge is looking at the sky trying to find a symbol | | | | "shaping spirit of Imagination". Left as he is to |
| there for something in himself. But he is only dispirited | | | | "Reality's darkest dream", he turns away from it with |
| by the noise of the wind-harp outside his room. | | | | disgust to listen again to the Eolian harp and the wind. |
| He attempts to analyze his inner wretchedness: | | | | As the wind raves, the harp also screams. The poet |
| "A grief without a pang, void, dark and drear". | | | | turns his attention from the passive, suffering harp, |
| The grief finds no relief in word, sigh or tear. With a | | | | and he likens the wind to an actor or a poet, expert |
| blank eye he can only see how "excellently fair" | | | | in tragic art. The storm may express the wounds and |
| Nature is. But his "heartless mood" has no power to | | | | groans of an army in rout, and then a more tender |
| feel its beauties. These cannot lift the deadening | | | | song of a lost and frightened child. But the |
| weight from off his heart. | | | | destructive wind may turn out after all to be a mere |
| The poet's passions can be raised by promptings | | | | nothing or a trifle that cannot disturb Sara |
| from within himself, if not from external sources. | | | | Hutchinson's peace. |
| Ah! From the soul itself must issue forth | | | | "And be this tempest but a mountain-birth". |
| A light, a glory . . . | | | | It is, however, under the stimulus of this strong, |
| The power of Joy lies within the soul itself. This Joy | | | | creative wind that the poet's deepest self-analysis |
| is the light, the glory, "the strong music in the soul", | | | | occurs, and also the fullest realization of power of |
| the "beautiful and beauty-making power". | | | | joy as it is actually achieved by Sara Hutchinson |
| The inner Joy is given only to those who, like Sara | | | | herself. |
| Hutchinson, his new beloved who was Wordsworth's | | | | Dejection is a poem about feelings - about sadness, |
| sister-in-law, are "pure of heart". This joy Coleridge | | | | love and joy. But it is also a poem about the creative |
| too experienced in his youth, mingled though it was | | | | imagination and its loss and recovery. |
| with distress. The joy generated in him a buoyant | | | | Any comment or "ratings" that you might feel |
| hope. And, what is more, his Imagination had the | | | | necessary to leave in assessment, will be highly |
| power to create dreams of happiness even out of | | | | appreciated. Thgank you all. |