English 2306 – Section 07971
Introduction to Poetry
Instructor: Jamie Thomas
10/7/2007
Comparison of William Wordsworth’s
Ode: Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood
And Samuel Coleridge’s Dejection: An Ode
Remy Dillenseger
The two odes cited herein share similar characteristics of style, genre, and conflict; however, even within this context the two works differ greatly in their exposition of these qualities. The style of each is an ode with the base meter in iambic pentameter and they were both written in the English romantic period. William Wordsworth composed his Ode: Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood between the years 1802 and 1804 and Samuel Coleridge wrote and published Dejection: An Ode in 1802. Both writers engage the idea of reflecting upon ones self, and the conflict in each work is that of the poem’s speaker struggling with the loss of his youthful creative energy. One way to say this is that he is struggling against himself and the aging process with ultimate resolution coming when he realizes that nature continues to exist around us and youth is, in a way, eternal.
Wordsworth begins his work this way:
There was a time when meadow, grove, and stream,
The earth, and every common sight,
To me did seem
Appareled in celestial light,
The glory and the freshness of a dream.
It is not now as it hath been of yore --
Turn whereso’er I may,
By night or by day,
The things which I have seen I now can see no more.
(Wordsworth, 796-797)
Caesurae in the first two lines emphasize the natural elements meadow, grove, stream, earth, and every common sight; this sets the tone as reflective upon nature. The second main clause states that he no longer sees the world in the same way immediately shifting the tone from “celestial light” and “freshness of a dream” to that of loss. Similarly echoed in the second stanza, “The sunshine is a glorious birth; But yet I know, Where’er I go, That there hath passed away a glory from the earth.” (Wordsworth, 797) the awe inspiring impact of natural beauty is lost on the aged and jaded speaker.
Beginning this way, the poet sets the tone as reminiscent of youth and builds a frame of reference within which he reflects upon his past and his present feelings. Iambic meter is used consistently throughout the first two stanzas. In the middle of the third stanza the meter shifts as the subject shifts away from the speaker’s introspective and depressed thoughts back to nature:
Land and sea
Give themselves up to jollity,
And with the heart of May
Doth every Beast keep holiday –
Thou Child of Joy,
Shout round me, let me hear thy shouts, thou happy Shepherd-boy!
(Wordsworth, 797)
Emphasis is dramatically changed here. Trochaic meter and catalectic emphasis are placed on “Land and sea” and spondaic emphasis is used with “Give themselves up” and “Shout round me” noting the change from introspective thoughts back to nature and youth, the dominant theme. Nature is emphasized and personified throughout the poem by similarly changing the meter. Changing the meter in this way, Wordsworth very effectively adds importance to the main ideas he is expressing.
Samuel Coleridge also adeptly employs the technique of changing meter to express his meaning. His theme is similar, that of losing his youthful perspective and becoming jaded to natural beauty; however, the mood of his poem and presentation of this idea varies greatly from Wordsworth’s. In contrast to Wordsworth, Coleridge uses the tempo to accentuate the meaning of his words. Extensive use of caesurae and enjambment in the beginning of his work imitates the gathering storm that he is referring to:
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 mold yon cloud in lazy flakes,
Or the dull sobbing draft, that moans and rakes
Upon the strings of this Aeolian lute,
Which better far were mute.
(Coleridge, 828)
The rising meter of this iambic pentameter is hastened by the enjambment of lines, punctuated intermittently by the medial caesurae. Nature is again the theme, but Coleridge illustrates the idea with feelings more than words. The feeling here is expressed by allusion to the Ballad of Sir Patrick Spence and foreshadowing the coming storm.
Another theme that is common to both Wordsworth and Coleridge is the ennui that comes with age; Coleridge engages this theme directly in the second and third stanzas, “A grief without a pang, void, dark, and drear, A stifled, drowsy, unimpassioned grief…,” “My genial spirits fail; And what can these avail To lift the smothering weight from off my breast?” (Coleridge, 828-829). This explicit statement of dark feelings is a direct contrast to Wordsworth’s emphasis on nature and his indirect treatment of his personal disposition.
Meter is also used by the poets in different ways. Coleridge creates a mood and feeling with his use of spondee and pyrrhic whereas Wordsworth highlights particular words. Employed throughout the poem, this technique indicates a changing mood as in the fifth stanza:
O pure of heart! Thou need’st not ask of me
What this strong music in the soul may be!
What, and wherein it doth exist,
This light, this glory, this fair luminous mist,
This beautiful and beauty-making power.
(Coleridge, 829)
At this point in the poem, or just before this passage at the end of stanza four, the mood changes from dark and introspective to light and reverent of nature. Oscillating back and forth in the middle of the poem between iambic and trochaic meter parallels the rise and fall of gusting wind until the last two stanzas. Trochaic and dactylic lines indicate the passage of the storm near the end of the seventh stanza:
But hush! There is a pause of deepest silence!
And all that noise, as of a rushing crowd,
With groans, and tremulous shudderings – all is over --
It tells another tale, with sounds less deep and loud!
(Coleridge, 831)
Again, the use of changing meter indicates a change in mood.
Coleridge uses the changing meter and tempo very effectively to indicate change in mood, while Wordsworth uses this technique to emphasize a thought. Both poets have similar themes in these works and they achieve their goal using similar methods; however, they have created drastically different effects. On first reading these two odes, they appear to have very little in common. When looking further into their theme and style, however, it becomes clear how similar they are. The two poets acknowledge the intrinsic beauty of nature but they attain this goal by entirely different means.
Works Cited
Coleridge, Samuel Taylor. “Dejection: An Ode.” Norton Anthology of Poetry, Fifth Edition, The 2005: Pages 828 - 831.
Wordsworth, William. “Ode: Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood.” Norton Anthology of Poetry, Fifth Edition, The 2005: Pages 796 - 801.
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