That "France" has retained its position as one of the great odes of the English language is due not only to the loftiness of its thought and the splendor of its imagery, but even more to the fact that 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.