Dejection: An Ode by S.T. Coleridge

 Critical Appreciation:

The poem, Dejection, written on April 4, 1802, is Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s swan song lamenting the decline of creative imagination. It is a deeply personal and autobiographical poem and depicts his mental state at the time. In this sublime and heart-rending poem, Coleridge gives expression to an experience of double consciousness. He sees but cannot feel. The power of feeling has been paralyzed by chemically-induced excitement of his brain. The seeing power, less dependent upon bodily health, stands aloof, individual, critical and very mournful. By ‘seeing’ he means perceiving and judging; by ‘feeling’ he means that which impels action. He suffers, but the pain is dull, and he wishes it were keen, for so he should awake from lethargy and recover unity at least. But nothing from outside can restore him, as the sources of soul’s life are within.

External sights are illuminated by the light which can flow from the joy in our hearts, and external sounds can acquire a melody only from the joy that must flow from our hearts. The poet recalls the time when he also used to experience this joy, but now he has been crushed by the misfortunes of life. His joy is gone and the power of his creative imagination has greatly declined. It has been twisted and infected by philosophy and metaphysics. Dismissing the depressing thoughts, he turns his attention to the various shrieking, groaning, fearful sounds that the raging storm is producing. In the concluding lines, the poet expresses his good wishes for his wife Sara whom he has addressed several times in the course of the poem. He    would like her to enjoy sound    sleep and perfect happiness.

Thus, Coleridge felt that his inborn gift of imagination was decaying and that his interest was shifting to philosophy. His talent for poetry was drying up and he was becoming more and more of a philosopher. This thing greatly distressed him and he was dejected at the thought ‘that his interest in abstruse research was crushing his poetic talent’. The poet proceeds with an ever-deepening sadness, each stanza charged with heavy gloom. A remarkable thing about Dejection Ode is that here Coleridge contradicts his own previous view of Nature, thus challenging Wordsworth’s pantheism.  In this poem, Coleridge completely denies this belief. Here the poet Coleridge asserts that Nature does not have life of her own and ii is human beings who attribute life to her. Coleridge is no longer able to get from Nature the joy because he has no joy in his heart to meet her half-way. He has realized that Nature cannot provide any joy to those who do not already have joy in their hearts.