Dejection an ode is a true example of Romaticism

Elements of Romanticism in "Dejection: An Ode

Dejection: An Ode is a poem full of romantic elements from the start till the end. it was written by Samuel Taylor Coleridge in 1802 in the Romantic Era. It reflects the mood of the poet, who was as famous for his rise as for his fall. On the surface, the work can simply be read as the remnant of the unattainable love of that era. On the other hand, "Dejection" is also read as the record of a creative crisis in Coleridge's career. In this piece of art, the poet expresses his deep subjectivity of grief on the loss of his creative imagination, which is thought to be the product of his depression born of his unhappy marriage and futile love for Sarah Hutchinson. This expression of personal loss in literature is an element of Romanticism itself. That alone stands great. 

Poet's personal experience is one of the features of Romanticism in literary and philosophical theory tends to see the individual at the very centre of all life. Throughout the poem, the poet conveys the imagery of grief and sadness, and how this dejection, affects his experience. The images of night, darkness, howling storm, crescent moon, viper thoughts, dark dreams etc, all represent an inner state of Coleridge's mind and his deep agony of dejected love.

Romantic literature to a great extent involves the expression of one's unique feelings and particular attitudes, which this piece of verse represents in its entire crux. He is unable to write his thoughts. He is lacking in inspiration and motivation to create his own reality; the agony of losing the power of creativity and his driving passion disturbs the pet more so than the depression he experiences. He has lost his creativity.

Throughout ht work, the pet tries to convey his grief in sadness and gloom, and how this dejection is beautifully expressed. He repeatedly wishes to be moved by the sights and sounds that are around him but is unable to be so. When the fruitlessness of looking outward to find the inspiration to break the sadness, or at least to make it productive, fail, Coleridge asserts that the inspiration must come from within itself. This is the conception, the ideal, with gives rise to the Romantic poets' emphasis on the great power of imagination and internal realities.

The poem depicts the creative crises in his life and is ultimately a testament to the importance of imagination in Romantic thought and ideology. The whole poem describes his dejection and sadness which are affected by his dejected love. The aeolian lute is a common symbol in Romantic poetry of man and his interaction with nature. Just as the lute needs the power of breeze to produce music and the poet needs inspiration to picturizes his imagination in words. this relationship with the outer atmosphere reflects the poet's inner temperament. For the romantic, reality is first created in the mind; feeling and personal attributions are internal creations that give meaning to external experiences.

Another aspect of romantic poetry deals with the past, exotic places, forgotten events and a sense of having lost something. Coleridge reviews his early life where he had good jolly days though the path was not good. He does not lament his depression, but rather his inability to make it productive with the use of imagination. His powerful imagination is the result of impassioned grief. He had the deepest sense of depression.

Although the Romantics place a great emphasis on nature and its relation to man, it is apparent in 'dejection' that nature for all its beauty and wonder is nothing without internal attribution of meaning, and that is what he has lost. He has lost the colours of imagination. He looks at the yellow-tinted sky, the scenery of the crescent moon, and clouds and starts yet, instead moved by these images. He has lost his imagination whereas all colours are present in nature, and that is useless now.

This memory of the lost paradise is romantic in spirit. The poet believes that as we move away from our paradisal state of innocence we keep on losing our spirit of imagination too. We try hard to get this seat with imagination but there is no vail. The significance of the imagination in Romantic thought and experience is constantly depicted in his struggle to shake off his unproductive and numb dejection. He also creates a contrast between the external beauty of nature and his inner disappointment to feel it dejectedly.