A grief without a pang, void, dark, and drear,
A stifled, drowsy, unimpassioned grief,
Which finds no natural outlet, no relief,
In word, or sigh, or tear—
O Lady! in this wan and 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,
And its peculiar tint of yellow green:
And still I gaze—and with how blank an eye!
And those thin clouds above, in flakes and bars,
That give away their motion to the stars;
Those stars, that glide behind them or between,
Now sparkling, now bedimmed, but always seen:
Yon crescent Moon, as fixed as if it grew
In its own cloudless, starless lake of blue;
I see them all so excellently fair,
I see, not feel, how beautiful they are!

At the beginning of this poem, the speaker is telling a lady just how miserable he feels. He's so depressed, even nature isn't making him feel any better.

We've already said that the Romantics are emotional, and we can see that very clearly in Coleridge's "Dejection: An Ode." The poor speaker is really depressed (Coleridge himself suffered from depression). And he's so depressed that the beautiful trees, the sky, and the stars aren't moving him enough. This is the worst fate for a Romantic: to look at nature and still be unmoved.

So Coleridge's poem is full of negative feeling. What we can take away from it all is the importance that the poem puts on emotion. Feelings matter, people, regardless of whether they're good or bad.

Here we have another ode, this time in praise of dejection. We told you those Romantics were unconventional, didn't we? The fact that Coleridge is writing an ode (a praise poem) to dejection just emphasizes how much these guys value emotion. Even bad emotions, like dejection, are worthy of praise.