Note: In a MS. copy of Dejection, An Ode, transcribed for Sir George Beaumont on the 4th of April 1802—and sent to him, when living with Lord Lowther at Lowther Hall—there is evidence that the poem was originally addressed to Wordsworth.
The following lines in this copy can be compared with those finally adopted:
O dearest William! in this heartless mood,
To other thoughts by yonder throstle woo'd
All this long eve so balmy and serene
Have I been gazing on the western sky,
...
O William, we 'receive' but what we 'give':
And in our life alone does Nature live.
...
Yes, dearest William! Yes!
There was a time when though my Path was rough
This Joy within me dallied with distress.
The MS. copy is described by Coleridge as "imperfect"; and it breaks off abruptly at the lines:
Suspends what Nature gave me at my birth
My shaping spirit of Imagination.
And he continues:
I am so weary of this doleful poem, that I must leave off....
Another MS. copy of this poem, amongst the Coleorton papers, is signed "S. T. Coleridge to William Wordsworth." Ed.
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