Dejection An Ode Questions and Answers
Q. 1. What is an ode?
Ans. An ode is a serious poem usually addressed to an object dead or absent. It endeavours to create a noble and sublime mood by the contemplation of the beautiful, the heroic or the divine. Its structure is elaborate as well as elastic, and its movement slow. It is invariably inspired by an intense emotion.
Q. 2. What is Dejection:An Ode about?
Ans. Coleridge’s Dejection: An Ode is initially a poem about the depressed state in which the poet finds himself. Throughout the poem, Coleridge, while in the depths of despair, tries to stimulate his imagination and creative powers through outside experiences of nature, but he fails.
Q 3. In which year was the poem first published? Who is addressed to in the poem?
Ans. Dejection: An Odewas the poem first published in 1802. The poem in its original form was addressed to Sara Hutchinson. Originally the expression was, “O William”, meaning William Wordsworth. Later, when Coleridge had become estranged from Wordsworth, he changed “William” into “Lady”. The poet is addressing his wife Sara whom he considers a purehearted lady.
Q. 4. Would you consider Dejection: An Ode a romantic poem?
Ans. Dejection: An Ode is a poem written by S. T. Coleridge in 1802. The poem in its original form was written to Sara Hutchinson, a woman who was not his wife, and discusses his feelings of love for her.
5. How does Coleridge describe his grief in Dejection: An Ode?
Ans. Dejection: An Ode is a deeply personal and autobiographical poem of Coleridge in which the poet describes his spiritual and moral loss, and the loss of creative imagination. At the time of birth, nature gave him great creative and imaginative powers, but his Nature gave constant unhappiness destroyed those powers.
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Q. 6. What is the source of the opening quotation?Why does Coleridge refer to the Ballad of Sir Patrick Spence?
Ans. The opening quotation is from Ballad of Sir Patrick Spence.
The poet who wrote the Ballad of Sir Patrick Spence, an early Scottish ballad describing the wrecking of Sir Patrick’s ship off Aberdeen shire in a violent storm.
Q. 7. Does the Dejection: An Ode contain any elements of what comprises romanticism?
Ans. The poem Dejection: An Ode by T.S. Coleridge contains elements of romanticism. According to the Romantics, the internal realities and imagination are the ideal conceptions which gives inspiration to one. The poet calls it “beauty-making power.”
Q. 8. What kind of moon appears in the first stanza?
Ans. New moon appears in the first stanza.The poet sees the old moon in the lap of the new moon. This phenomenon, according to an ancient superstition, is the harbinger of a furious storm that is likely to blow.
Q. 9. Critically describe the function of the wind in the poem.
Ans. As far as the function of the wind is concerned, it is a force, which has the power to change the atmosphere. Wind is responsible for the change in weather. The beautiful night along with the moon forces the poet to remember the days of his youth when his imaginative power was working properly. The beautiful night symbolises the effective poetic genius of the poet while the stormy weather denotes that the poet has no control on his imagination.
Q.10. What does the poet mean by “Upon the strings of this Æolian lute” (1.7)
Ans. The line is taken from Dejection: An Ode by T.S. Coleridge. Here lute stands for a stringed musical instrument. Aeolus is the god of the wind. Hence, Æolian lute refers to a stringed musical instrument upon which the wind is blowing.
Q.11. Find out two dominating images in Dejection: An Ode.
Ans. The poem contains multiple images of nature. The poet sees the new-moon winter bright with the old moon in her lap. The swelling storm with nocturnal shower falling loud and fast; the stars gliding behind and between the stars are beautiful images in the poem.
12. What does the poet mean by “Thou mighty Poet, e’en to frenzy bold?
Ans. Like a powerful poet, the wind can show great fury and can acquire the boldness which a frenzied or inspired poet possesses. The poet finds that the mood of the wind has now changed. A poet can utter bold words in bold accents provided that he gets charged with poetic inspiration. The wind can do the same if it gets frenzy or madness. The comparison of the poet and wind is noteworthy.
Q.13. Where do you find irony in the poem?
Ans. S.T. Coleridge cries out in this poem that he is no more a poet and his condition is critical yet he opposes his own analysis in the poem as it is his best poem. This is ironical. His opening quotation is from the Ballad of Sir Patrick Spence, yet his poem is given the title of an ode.
Q.14. How is the moon described in Dejection: An Ode? What colour is the western sky?
Ans. The moon is described in Dejection: An Ode as crescent. The poet’s dull and drowsy grief finds no outlet. He has been gazing at the beauty of the sky and stars all evening, without being able to feel that beauty.The poet sees the old moon in the lap of the new moon. This phenomenon, according to an ancient superstition, is the harbinger of a furious storm that is likely to blow.
Q.15. Where does the speaker of Dejection:An Ode Seek solace for his grief?
Ans. Addressing his wife Sara, the poet says that we get from Nature what we give to Nature. Nature seems to be full of life because we ourselves endow it with life. The poet seeks solace for his grieffrom Nature. If we find Nature to be in a joyful or festive mood, it is because we are ourselves in that mood. If we find Nature in a mood of mourning, it is because we are ourselves in that mood.
Q 16. How is the poet’s spirit in Dejection: An Ode?
Ans. The poet’s spirit is genial. When the inner sources of animation and excitement in life have dried up, the poet cannot hope to obtain these from external sources.
Q.17. Who are addressed to as “O Lady” and “O William” in Dejection: An Ode ?
Ans. The poet here addresses his wife Sara. Originally the expression was, “O William“, meaning William Wordsworth. Later, when Coleridge had become estranged from Wordsworth, he changed “William” into “Lady”. The poet is addressing his wife Sara whom he considers a pure-hearted lady.
Q 18. Who is Aeolus? Why does the poet say”I turn from you, and listen to the wind”?
Ans. Aeolus is the god of the wind.
The lament on the loss of the poetic imagination and the capacity for poetic expression has ended. The poet now turns his attention to the wind blowing furiously and interprets the various sounds and noises produced by the wind in terms of different human moods.
Q.19. Locate and annotate : “Thus mayest thou ever, ever more rejoice”.
Ans. This is the concluding line from Dejection: An Ode. The poet prays that all living creatures from one end of the world to the other end, may dedicate their existence to his wife, and that their existence may become a vital force to add to the energy of her spirit.
20. Do you know of any background of the poem?
Coleridge’s poem Dejection: an Ode, originally written on April 4, 1802, has a background. It was originally a verse-letter, rather bulky of about 340 lines. It was supposed to be addresed to Wordsworth. But, after Coleridge’s estrangement with him, the addressee was shifted to Sara Hutchinson. But subsequently Coleridge made a thorough revision of the work, omitted personal matters, shortened the work and changed it to a poem of 139 lines under the title Dejection: an Ode.
21. What is the name of the ballad given at the beginning of the poem? From what work was it extracted?
The ballad named in the beginning of the poem is Ballad of Sir Patrick Spence. That ballad was extracted from Thomas Percy’s Relics of Ancient English Poetry.
22. Who was the Lady addressed by the poet in his Dejection: an Ode?
The lady mentioned, is Sarah Hutchinson, the sister of Wordsworth’s wife Mary Hutchinson.
Coleridge had a deep admiration for her.
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