"Dejection: an Ode" S. T. Coleridge

Q : Discuss the theme of ‘Dejection: an Ode’.

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Discuss Coleridge’s attitude towards Nature.

Ans : Written in 1802, ‘Dejection: an Ode’ deals with life without joy in which creation is dead. It expresses the sense of failure and sterility which results from the weakening of the poet’s creative imagination. The Ode comes close to Wordsworth’s ‘Immortality Ode’ in which a similar expression is to be found. Coleridge describes a moment of crisis when it seems to him that his creative faculties are at the end of his career. ‘The Dejection Ode’ is a poem of self-analysis and introspection in which the poet regretfully recalls the past and contrasts it with the pain and grief of the present. Nature cannot help a heart that itself is dried up. Coleridge seems to think that the state of mind determines a man’s response to Nature and the sources of happiness must spring up in ourselves :

I may not hope from outward forms to win

The passion and the life, whose fountains are within.

He says that we receive only what we give. The world is cheerful when we are happy and gloomy when we are sad. He addresses Sara, his beloved :

O Lady! we receive but what we give,

And in our life alone does Nature live :

Ours is her wedding garment, ours her shroud!

We attribute emotions and feelings to inanimate objects of Nature. It is our imagination that makes Nature alive with a beauty and message and the spiritual message we read into Nature proceeds from our souls.