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Contents - ResearchSpace@Auckland - The University of Auckland

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leave his heart untouched, as does the ‘sublime’ spectacle <strong>of</strong> the vast night sky and the starry heavens– ‘I see not feel how beautiful they are!’ But rather than see the cause <strong>of</strong> his dejection as his inabilityto respond to the phenomena <strong>of</strong> nature, he stresses that it is God’s vision present in the mind thatbestows all value on the world. Coleridge is dejected because his mind is sick, not because nature haswithdrawn some power that had previously provided him with a sense <strong>of</strong> elation. <strong>The</strong> physical world<strong>of</strong> appearances is not the place to look for any lifting <strong>of</strong> the spirits, it may seem to be that way, but ourfeelings are not dependent on the natural world. Having defined his own feelings <strong>of</strong> dejection inresponse to the commonplaces that Wordsworth uses in his stanzas, and which produce no feeling forhim whatsoever, Coleridge then turns to address Wordsworth to disabuse him <strong>of</strong> his attachment to theworld <strong>of</strong> outer form:I may not hope from outwards Forms to win<strong>The</strong> Passion & the Life, whose Fountains are withinO Wordsworth! we receive but what we give,And in our life alone does Nature live:Our’s is her Wedding-garment, our’s her Shroud!And would we aught behold <strong>of</strong> higher WorthThan that inanimate cold world allow’dTo the poor loveless ever anxious Crowd,Ah from the Soul itself must issue forthA Light, a Glory, a fair luminous cloudEnveloping the Earth!And from the Soul there must be sentA sweet and pow’rful Voice, <strong>of</strong> its own BirthOf all sweet Sounds the Life and Element!<strong>The</strong>se lines and the argument they present for the creative soul are well known to students <strong>of</strong>British Romantic literature. Having asserted his claim that it is the soul, not Nature that gives life tothings, Coleridge again addresses, and also praises Wordsworth as someone ‘pure <strong>of</strong> heart’ who hasno need to ask ‘What this strong Music in the Soul may be’ because he has already experienced it. Inaddressing him in such a manner Coleridge co-opts Wordsworth to join him as a fellow believer in theself-creating power <strong>of</strong> the rapturous and joyful soul.O pure <strong>of</strong> Heart! thou need’st not ask <strong>of</strong> meWhat 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!JOY, blameless Poet! JOY, that ne’er was givenSave to the Pure, and in their purest Hour,Joy, William! is the Spirit & the PowerThat wedding Nature to us gives in Dow[er]A new Earth and new HeavenUndreamt <strong>of</strong> by the Sensual and the Proud!JOY is that sweet Voice, Joy that luminous cloud -We, we ourselves rejoice!And thence comes all that charms or ear or sight,All Melodies an Echo <strong>of</strong> that Voice,All colors a suffusion from that Light! (CL II 817)63

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