Dejection: An Ode Themes
Imagination
The power of the imagination is a familiar motif in several of Coleridge’s poems. In “Kubla Khan,” Coleridge explores the fantastical creations of the imagination. In “Dejection: An Ode,” Coleridge laments on the pain an artist suffers when his imagination and creativity are stifled by depression. In “Frost at Midnight,” Coleridge likewise laments the aimlessness of his thoughts of his thought and his lack of originality and creativity on the particular night of the poem’s setting
The imagination is connected to nature and to childhood in Coleridge's works. Kubla Khan's "stately pleasure dome" is a thing of imagination, but the reader knows this primarily because it is an inconceivable juxtaposition of natural elements (caves of ice over an underground sunless sea). In "Frost at Midnight" the speaker longs for the imaginative powers of his youth, when he could sit inside a classroom on a bright, hot summer's day and imagine himself outdoors running through
the countryside
Happiness
Several of Coleridge’s poems explore the sources of happiness. In “Dejection: An Ode,” Coleridge acknowledges that he cannot solely rely on his external surroundings in nature to bring him happiness and that he must take responsibility for his emotional state. Nevertheless, in “Frost at Midnight,” “Sonnet: To the River Otter,” and “The Nightingale,” Coleridge describes how having an intimate relationship with nature can have a positive effect on one’s happiness.
Happiness is also to be found in returning to a state of childlike innocence. Gazing upon his baby in "Frost at Midnight," Coleridge is overwhelmed by the child's beauty and made dizzyingly happy. LIkewise, it is the days of his youth which make him happy in "Sonnet: To the River Otter."
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