Dejection: An Ode by S. T. Coleridge

 DEJECTION: AN ODE by S. T. Coleridge

Samuel Tailor Coleridge (1772-1834) was a an extra-ordinary poet of English literature during the period of Romantic Revival (1798-1830). He is known as the poet of supernatural. He is considered as the founder of the movement of neo-romanticism in English literature. He is best known for his poems ‘Rime of the Ancient Mariner’ and ‘Kubla Khan’

His poem ‘Dejection: An Ode’ is a magnum opus which presents his unknown fear of losing his gifts of poetic art and imagination.

Why an Ode?

An ode is a poem addressed to someone. It is meant to be sung, and generally it is very serious and 'lofty' in nature. In this ode Coleridge expresses a very serious issue of the loss of his poetic capabilities and his imagination.

Understanding the Poem:

Stanza I:

This poem is written in eight stanzas of varying lengths. Before Coleridge begins the first stanza, he quotes this passage from Sir Patrick Spence:

“Late, late yestreen I saw the new moon,
With the old moon in her arms;
And I fear, I fear, my master dear!
We shall have a deadly storm.”

Stanza II:

Coleridge’s invokes  a Lady and suggests that his pain is the result of a broken heart. He says that he has been endlessly gazing at the skies and the stars. He claims that he is so overwhelmed with sadness that he can only see and can no longer feel or internalize the beauty of nature.

Stanza III:

Coleridge admits that gazing at the beauty of the skies is a vain and futile effort to ease his pain. He realizes that “outward forms” will not relieve him of his inner pain and that only he has the power to change his emotional state.

Stanza IV:

Coleridge once again addresses his Lady, telling her that although some things are inevitable in life and controlled by nature, a person must still be an active agent in creating his or her own happiness. Man is the architect of his own fortune.

Stanza V:

The poet describes the characteristics of the feeling of Joy to his Lady. He appreciates the powers of Joy, which can create beauty as well as create a “new Earth and new Heaven.”

Stanza VI:

He remembers his good days of joy and thinks of how joy used to overpower his feelings of grief.

Stanza VII:

In this stanza he now turns his attention to the bad weather. Within this fearful storm, he is able to hear the less frightful sounds of a child looking for her mother.

Stanza VIII:

Although it is now midnight, Coleridge has no intention of going to sleep. However, he wishes for “Sleep” to visit his Lady and to use its healing powers to lift the Lady’s spirits and bring her joy. Coleridge concludes the poem by wishing the Lady eternal joy.

Theme: Loss of the Power of Imagination / Grief:

To Shelley, “If winter comes, can spring be far behind.” But for Coleridge “If the old Moon is in the lap of the new Moon, a storm is in the offing.”

In this way, Coleridge introduces his “fear” of the “storm”. Here the poet wants to suggests that he is afraid of the arrival of some storm in his life and he thinks that his poetic talent or gift might be lost.

This poem is addressed to a lady called Sara. She is pure of heart. So she is full of joy. Therefore to her nature is always-festive, The poet finds a contrast between his mood and the mood of the Lady.

The poet remembers that in his earlier days he had this joy though the path of his life was rough. In those days he even used his misfortunes as material to weave visions of delight. Then hope grew around him like a creeper growing around a tree. Natural objects seemed to be his own, as if an extension of his own personality. But now his care-worn heart has no joy. He cares little for this loss ofjoy but his loss of imagination is the real loss. He was born with superb power of imagination but it is almost dead now. He tried to be patient, forgetting the loss he had suffered, So he tried to cultivate the study of metaphysics so that once again he could be 'natural man' who does not sigh or shed tears all the time. This was his plan. He practiced it but it did not help him much. Tangled in metaphysics, he is still sad, unable to rouse imagination in him

This is an autobiographical poem which expresses the poet’s mood, his grief, his loss of the power of imagination and his poetic qualities. It is a romantic poem as it deals with the poet’s subjective or personal feeling of loss. The love and respect for nature also makes it a poem of romanticism.

“0 Lady! we receive but what we give,

And in our life alone does Nature live:

Ours is her wedding garment, ours her shroud!”

Dawson writes about imagination of S. T. Coleridge:-

“It is in the world of pure imagination he is most at home, and it is there he attains his highest literary excellence.”

In “Dejection”, he surprises the readers while saying that he has lost his mental vision but his poems does not aid him in this context; the poem is highly imaginative and perplexes the readers; it raises question on the minds of readers that whether to trust the poet or not.