Dejection Analysis

Well! If the Bard was weather-wise, who made

The grand old ballad of Sir Patrick Spence,
This night, so tranquil now, will not go hence
Unroused by winds, that ply a busier trade
Than those which mould yon cloud in lazy flakes,
Or the dull sobbing draft, that moans and rakes
Upon the strings of this Æolian lute,
Which better far were mute.
For lo! the New-moon winter-bright!
And overspread with phantom light,
(With swimming phantom light o’erspread
But rimmed and circled by a silver thread)
I see the old Moon in her lap, foretelling
The coming-on of rain and squally blast.
And oh! that even now the gust were swelling,
And the slant night-shower driving loud and fast!
Those sounds which oft have raised me, whilst they awed,
And sent my soul abroad,
Might now perhaps their wonted impulse give,
Might startle this dull pain, and make it move and live!

In the first stanza, Coleridge through a clever use of images has suggested the chilling up of his
poetic imagination. This has driven him to dejection and he feels a very dull pain in his heart. He
longs for a violent storm that could invigorate his mind and at least, get him out of this pitiable
condition. The poet would not like to indulge in self-pity in his poems. He would be happier if the
lute were not to produce any sounds at all. The moon has a peculiar place in the poetic activity of
Coleridge. According to Bowra,
“Coleridge took the moon as ‘a symbol of the poets’ power to transform the material world into a
world of imagination”
Here the moon overspread with a phantom light points to his dejection, a certain chilling of his
springs of poetry. But we find there is a certain silver thread rimming and circling it. This should
salvage the situation slightly. We might say that the creative powers instead of having been dried
up permanently have been temporarily suspended. The poet wishes that the wind has already
gained strength and changed into a fierce storm. The poet does not expect the storm to bring any
relief from the pain. But at least it could give some sort of life to it, as it is the sluggish monotony
of this pain, which is almost unbearable to the poet.
ADDITIIONAL: The poem Dejection is an Ode composed by Samuel Taylor Coleridge. As is
suggested by its very title, Coleridge wrote this ode in a mood of dejection and despair. The poet
feels that the poet within him is dead. So, he longs for a storm which may stir his poetic talent to
revive it. The occasion is the night of April 4, 1802. The entire atmosphere is full of peace and
quiet. The poet looks at the moon. Against its background is a disc of light. The poet thinks this
disc of light to be the old moon. This reminds him of the old ballad of Sir Patrick Spence. In the
ballad, it was said that an old moon in the arms of a new one would bring a storm.
Seeing these conditions here, Coleridge thinks that a storm is on its way. The slow-moving winds,
which are already reshaping the floating masses of clouds, will soon change into fiercely blowing
winds. The Aeolian lute (the musical harp Aeolus, the Greek god of wind) which is being played
by the wind, will gradually stop sighing and lamenting. In its place stormy winds will blow. In the
past, the storm had been a source of inspiration to the poets. He hopes that the storm and rain will
once again invigorate his mind and get him out of his emotional break-down.
He expects them to lift his sorrow-stricken soul and enliven his dull pain plying dead in his heart.
In other words, his heart’s feelings will be enlivened by the fury of the storm. As a result of this
revival and enlivenment, the dead poet within him will again start working as before. The over-all
spirit of these lines is that the poet wants to rise from his deep slumber of barrenness and only a
fierce storm can perform the trick of firing his imagination.

STANZA 2
A grief without a pang, void, dark, and drear,
A stifled, drowsy, unimpassioned grief,
Which finds no natural outlet, no relief,
In word, or sigh, or tear—
O Lady! in this wan and heartless mood,
To other thoughts by yonder throstle woo’d,
All this long eve, so balmy and serene,
Have I been gazing on the western sky,
And its peculiar tint of yellow green:
And still I gaze—and with how blank an eye!
And those thin clouds above, in flakes and bars,
That give away their motion to the stars;
Those stars, that glide behind them or between,
Now sparkling, now bedimmed, but always seen:
Yon crescent Moon, as fixed as if it grew
In its own cloudless, starless lake of blue;
I see them all so excellently fair,
I see, not feel, how beautiful they are!

In the second stanza, the poet is not able to provide any natural outlet to his stifled, unimpassioned
anguish. Throughout the peaceful evening, he has been gazing at the beautiful sights of nature but
he thinks he has lost the capacity of feeling that beauty.
“A grief without a pang, void, dark and drear,
A stifled, drowsy, unimpassioned grief.”
In these two lines the poet describes the nature of his heartache. It is a suppressed, sleepy,
unaroused, passive kind of grief. It does not cause any piercing sensation in his heart, which
appears to be just blank. His soreness is related to the “dull pain” mentioned in the last line of the
first stanza.
“Might startle this dull pain and make it move and live!”
The sparkle or the dimness of the stars obviously corresponds to the fluctuations in the poet’s soul.
Even though bedimmed, the stars are “always seen”. This corroborates our earlier understanding
of the poem that the poet has not fully lost his poetic creativity. In the original version after talking
about the “lake of blue”, the poet speaks of “a boat becalmed”. The becalming of the boat has a
symbolic reference to the creative activity in Coleridge. The “fixed moon” also suggests the same
thing.
ADDITIONAL: In the above lines of the poem Dejection by Coleridge, the poet further says that
he is in a mood of deep sorrow. No beautiful object of Nature can charm him. In the absence of
the inner joy in his heart, he does not feel the beauty of Natural objects. This grief and pain has
been expressed effectively by these verses. The poet is full of a very deep grief, which has so
completely overpowered him that he does not feel its pang or pain anymore. The grief is void or
empty, that is, it does not arouse the poetic feeling in any way. It is empty darkness in his heart out
of which the poet cannot expect to come out. Due to this grief, he is becoming more and more
drowsy and inactive. This grief has been described by the poet as ‘stifled, drowsy and
impassioned.’ It does not arouse the poet even to weep or to heave sighs. The poet is not stirred or
inspired.
Thus, though the poet is very much aggrieved, he is not in a position to give vent to his grief.
Having lost his sense of feeling, Coleridge is very much dejected. He looks at the beautiful
external objects of Nature. These had once inspired him but they no longer do so now. He gazes
at the floating flakes of clouds, but his eyes are blank because he does not feel their beauty any
more. The shining stars appear to be modest and grave. The crescent moon appears to be fixed in
the sky. It is glowing in a majestic manner. The floating clouds appear like flakes and bars hiding
and revealing the shining stars. In this way all the objects of Nature are going on in their usual
way. They are all very beautiful, but the poet does not feel their beauty or charm. His soul is not
lit up with joy. His imagination does not get stirred or inspired.