Ode: Intimations of Immortality : Summary

Summary

Childhood Memories and Celebrations:  The poet initially reminisces about his childhood. As a child, meadows, forests, waterfalls, the earth, and even ordinary scenes seemed like heavenly beauty to the poet. But now he can no longer feel that way because the poet is no longer a child. As people grow older, they move further away from the heavenly feeling of childhood.

Losing the Heavenly Feeling: As in childhood, the poet still sees rainbows rise and fall. Like the days of childhood, the rose blossoms, the moon cheers the cloudless sky with bright light, and the sun rises with the same brightness. But wherever the poet goes now, he feels that the heavenly feeling of childhood is no more. The poet thinks that before the birth of man, his soul resides in heaven. When he comes to earth as a child, he has some memories of that heaven. But as people grow older, they become engrossed in worldly life and lose the sense of heaven.

A Temporary Sense of Calm: The poet says, Now when the birds sing with joy, the lambs leap, the poet’s heart is filled with pain. After some time, the thought of nature comes to the poet’s mind. He heard the sound of the waterfall from the high mountain. He realizes that the suffering in his mind is not bringing any change in nature. The birds are happy. The shepherd boy is also joyfully calling the sheep. So the poet calls this shepherd boy a “Child of joy”.

The poet also calls the shepherd boy and the sheep “blessed creatures”. Because only they can experience heavenly feelings. The whole world laughs at their joy. Once, the poet also joined their joy. Everywhere he saw children gathering flowers in May-like mountain valleys, the sun radiating warm light. Everything reminds the poet of the lost days of his childhood.

Learning to Understand Reality: The poet understands that people are born to forget everything. Before infancy, the soul of man was in heaven. Then at the time of birth, he comes to the world with the Atna body. He does not forget all the memories of heaven when he comes. So as a child, he can perceive heavenly beauty in everything. As a result, no one can touch him with anxiety or sorrow during his childhood. Gradually as the child grows into youth, the preoccupations of earthly life distract him from heavenly feelings.

Singing Children’s Hymns and Forgetting Heaven in the Earth’s Abundance: The poet says that the earth fills everyone with its abundance to make them forget the heavenly feeling as a mother holds her child. The poet now asks everyone to look at the newly born children. He mentions a 6-year-old child (Hartley Coleridge, S.T. Coleridge’s youngest.

The poet says that people build their world during childhood. Mother’s loving kisses and father’s loving caressed him then. Once the child grows up. Various social customs, customs, weddings, festivals, processions, etc. bind them. Then once he gets old, and rushes toward death.

The poet said children are the best philosophers. The feeling of heaven prevails in their hearts. What adults cannot understand, they can easily understand. The poet tells the children that they are the most blessed wise sages. But in the course of time, when the child becomes a mature man, he attaches himself to everything in the world. Thus he loses the heavenly feeling.

Awakening of the Soul: The poet says one should be thankful for these blessings of childhood joy and freedom. Then the poet says that it is possible to understand the mystery of this world only through the awakening of the soul. So the poet here calls upon the soul to awaken so that the strength of childhood returns. If it comes back, then there will be happiness among people. Then even from this world, the soul of man can hear the roar of the world of immortality, from which man comes to earth. After death, the soul will return to that place and see how many children who will soon come into this world are playing there. So the poet has forbidden any sorrow by losing the strength of the soul of childhood. He realizes that at the end of the life of this world, man will return to the place from where he came into this world. The world has gifted him with this philosophical spirit.

In this way, the poet begins the poem with sadness due to the loss of the heavenly feeling of childhood, but in the end, he ends the poem expressing satisfaction with his spiritual consciousness.