Show how Dejection - an Ode expresses the essence of Coleridge’s
poetic theories related to Romantic imagination.
Or
Attempt a critical appreciation of Dejection: an Ode.
In neo-classical literary theory, the
term “Imagination” indicated a mechanical system of human mind - a passive
record of sense impressions. The Romantics, however, are unanimous in claiming
for it a much more exalted position. For them, imagination is a truly creative
faculty rather than simply re-arranging materials by senses and memory. It is a
kind of ordering and ‘modifying power’ which colours object of sense with mind’s
own light.
“An auxiliary light,
Came from my mind which on the setting
sun
Bestow’d new splendor.
Like all the other Romantic poets,
Coleridge also believes in this poetic theory and his Dejection –An Ode
really expresses the essence of the romantic theory of imagination. Written in
April, 1802, Dejection –An Ode is the last and most despondent of
Coleridge’s conversation poems. At that time when the poem was written two
causes of despondency-his unhappy marriage and his love for Sara Hatchinson
worked havoc with the poet and brought him to despair. His addiction towards
opium also added to his wretched condition. In the poem, Coleridge deplores the
metaphysical strain in his thinking as responsible for the destruction of the
poet in him. He has lost his poetic powers and his addiction to opium has
squeezed out all the poetic imagination from him. It is such a dark and dismal
sorrow that it finds no expression in words, tears or sights. He feels that
Nature cannot cure him of his melancholy as he is no longer stirred to his
depths by Nature:
“A grief without a pang-void dark and
dream
A stifled, drowsy, unimpassioned grief
Which finds no natural outlet no
relief
In word, or sigh or tear.”
