it turns from the political excitement of the hour to the grandeur
and beauty of nature and to those aspirations and ideals whose home is
"in the heart of man."

"LOVE"

From the second edition of "Lyrical Ballads," 1800. It was planned by
Coleridge as an introduction to the ballad of "The Dark Ladie," which
was never completed, but of which some fifteen stanzas were printed in
the 1834 edition of his "Poetical Works." Its composition cannot be
accurately dated. It is conceived in the general spirit of the ballads
but is simpler, more purely a poem of sentiment, than either
"Christabel" or "The Ancient Mariner," and makes no use of the
supernatural. Its simplicity and absolute purity of tone are, however,
something more than a negative virtue. Coleridge himself declared of it
and "The Ancient Mariner" that they might be excelled, but could not be
imitated.

"DEJECTION: AN ODE"

This ode was written in April, 1802, at a time when, after sickness,
opium, domestic unhappiness and the consequent paralysis of his poetic
faculty had driven him to seek distraction in the study of metaphysics,
he made a visit to Wordsworth at Dove Cottage and in that vitalizing
presence experienced a brief return of his powers--enough to give
wonderful expression to perhaps the saddest thoughts that ever visited
ungoverned genius. The earliest known form of the poem, preserved in a
letter to W. Sotheby of July 19, 1802, shows (what is apparent enough to
one familiar with the relations existing between the two poets) that it
was conceived as a letter to Wordsworth, who is addressed in this
earliest version as "Dearest Poet," "Wordsworth," and "William." It was
first printed in the "Morning Post" for October 4, 1802, with "Edmund"
for Wordsworth's name and with some omissions, but with the strong
personal feeling undiminished; and in its present form (that is, with
the parts omitted in the 1802 print restored, but with the substitution
of "Lady" for "Edmund" and with numerous other omissions and changes,
notably in the last stanza, all tending to depersonalize the poem) in
"Sibylline Leaves," 1816. In 1810 a hint given by Wordsworth, with the
best intentions, to a third person concerning the real nature of
Coleridge's troubles, was reported, or rather misreported, to Coleridge,
and an estrangement fraught with deep grief to both ensued. The breach
was healed, as much as such wounds may be, by the mediation of a common
friend