Theme of loss in “Dejection: An Ode”

Samuel Taylor Coleridge was a great poet in English literature, but it was his bad luck that he could not create too many poems because of his personal problems. “Dejection: An Ode” is one of the best poems written by him, and it is a poem about sadness and depression. It was written at a time when Coleridge was suffering from many problems and he lost hope in life and future. It is the poem of a desperate man in a desperate condition, but still, it has all the artistic beauty of an excellent poem. From the first to the last, the poet talks about sadness and emotional emptiness. He talks like a frustrated person- a person who has been defeated in life.

Mood of dejection is clearly visible throughout the poem. His losses are so much that he has lost everything in life and he cannot enjoy anything. He can see the beauty in nature, but he cannot enjoy it. Instead, everything in nature looks to him dull and lifeless. He cannot find any hope and happiness even in nature. To him, everything is meaningless and the mood of dejection is dominant in his mind. It is like that he has accepted his defeat and resigned from life. He is not even in a mood to try for the future and he has no emotional strength.

The poet in the poem “Dejection: An Ode” has an elderly and mature tone. He does not have the hope and vigor for life like his young days. Coleridge accepts that his youth has passed not only physically but also emotionally. He does not have the strength of the youth in his body and vigor and naturally, he cannot enjoy the things like past. But more than that he has lost the freshness of mind and he remembers in the past his life was full of hope. Youth is the most beautiful time in a person’s life. We enjoy everything in our young time. So, Coleridge is sad that his best time in life has gone and he has lost hope for the future also. More than the loss of youth, Coleridge is sad and dejected from the loss of creativity. He was a great poet who could write many beautiful poems in the past, but he has lost his creativity. He felt that he was becoming more a metaphysical person instead of a poet. This also gave him sadness. Coleridge could not think that he would be separated from poetry, but life was difficult for him. He was failing to write poems like the past.

“Dejection: An Ode” is a philosophical poem, and it talks about some philosophical ideas. Coleridge gives his own opinion and philosophy about the role of nature in human life. Wordsworth used to think that nature was inseparable from human life and nature was alive. Wordsworth also felt that nature could hill a man in terms of sadness and depression. Coleridge stated the opposite idea in this poem and said that life is full of despair and nature cannot do anything for a man. Instead, nature only increased his sadness and nature reminded him of all the sadness of the past. Coleridge was a man of philosophy, and like any philosopher, he was good at stating abstract ideas. This poem is full of such ideas and often it may become difficult for the readers to understand the inner meaning of the statements that Coleridge was making.

If we want to understand the significance of this poem, we have to take into account of the personal background of S. T. Coleridge. He was a highly talented person, but at the same time, he was a failure in love and career. He was not born in a rich family and all through his life, he struggled against poverty. He was not a rich person and fighting for money took a lot of energy from his life. He also suffered a loss in love and although he had a good relationship with William Wordsworth, during the time he wrote this poem, his relationship with good friend William Wordsworth became bad. So, Coleridge was a failure in everything and by this poem, he expressed his sadness and frustration in life.

It was bad luck for S. T. Coleridge that he was not born in our age. Today, a highly educated and talented person like Coleridge at least would not have remained poor in a country like England. I cannot say whether he would have been successful in the matter of love, but surely he would not suffer from poverty. At that time, poets had almost no field to earn money. Newspaper was not an industry. There was no cinema or television. So, creative people like Coleridge had a very limited scope of income. Secondly, England was not a fully democratic country. Since he was not from an aristocratic background, he did not have too many connections.

Coleridge lost a lot in life, and the theme of loss is the central theme in “Dejection: An Ode” poem. However, I feel that this loss, in the end, helped him to write this immortal poem.