With “Visionary Hope,” Samuel Taylor Coleridge romanticizes the overwhelming state of desire without excluding the troubles it causes in human life. Coleridge develops for the reader an almost picturesque set of emotional impulses and disabilities, far from being abstract and obscure only in the question of their true source. The reader of “Visionary Hope” must decide whether the individual meaning of this vision is rooted in the naive hope of an ending, or whether, in reality, the fantasy remains for the sake of fantasy. While presenting both sides of an argument regarding the validity of human aspiration, the author holds that hope itself is the one and only life force necessary for the spiritually thirsty soul. At the same time, however, Coleridge's fantastical abandonment to the power of a single hope at the end of the poem constitutes a subtle solicitation of self-examination; the reader must ask whether the value of an elusive perspective lies in the scintillating possibility of its realization, or simply in its ability to foster a cleansing outpouring of brilliant emotions and feelings. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essay From the very beginning, Coleridge makes it clear what the outcome of his poetic debate between reason and emotion will be. Opening with “Sad fate, to have no hope!” (Line 1), the author proclaims that the reigning source of living value is hope, however “visionary” it may prove to be in reality. For Coleridge, he who “would like to formulate a prayer in his breast” (2) leads a courageous existence in submission to blind faith. While recognizing the simple humility of his "kneeling" (1) in the face of unrealistic desire, the speaker, striving for relief, simultaneously understands his own ignorance while experiencing a surreal solidarity with his spiritual psyche: “He would implore a sweet healing breath, /That his sick body might have rest and rest; /He fought in vain! » (3-5) Supporting Coleridge's stark contrast between the emotional magnificence and the all-consuming conflicts that ensue, his character acts in "strong" supplication to the powers that be. Fully aware of his helplessness in the face of hope which limits him and yet propels him through life, he continually makes conscious efforts to develop this unfulfilled desire which has now become more real than concrete reality. Ironically, what is to the rational person a meaningless pursuit driven by fleeting emotions is to the speaker nothing less than the true meaning of his life. Although the object of the speaker's desire provides the guiding force in his life, the character in the poem submits to the constraints of pain. disarmament, in all human current affairs: “The deaf sighs from his chest / Against his will the revealing suffocating charge” (5-6). As the speaker's indulgence in his imaginative project fills his heart with purpose, Coleridge suggests the existing counterbalance of a deliberate appeal for relief from worry. Here the author fully examines the weight of reason in a life of distortion; Although the power of hope itself undermines the speaker's rational ability to see completely through that hope, his earthly will nevertheless desires escape from pain as much as realizing his vision. However, where Coleridge equalizes the status of reality and fantasy, he clearly places them in distinct psychological poles. The speaker's cries reveal the "suffocating burden" of his inaccessible perspective, "although Nature forced him" (7), and noescape is not possible. Coleridge's capitalization of "Nature" as well as the more abstract concepts of "Hope" (17, 20, 27) and "Love" (20) in later lines paved the way for both the power physical nature and its link with the psychological nature of the soul. . Not only does this hope represent a greater entity of intangible human affections, but its power indeed exceeds human effort to be realistic: "A royal prisoner at his conqueror's feast, /The restless mood of a stranger but half concealed” (8-9). The speaker, in this case, does not yet choose to live on his hope, but falls helplessly at his feet; foreign to his own conflicts, to his attempts to eradicate an unreasonable aspiration is captive to the tyrannical existence of vision. “Visionary Hope” unveils, overall, Coleridge’s laser-beam sense of clarity regarding the distortion of reason amidst almighty grief expected from the speaker as he wastes away. Unable to realize his hope, he seizes one last time on the base reality: "The severity of his gentle confessed brow" (10) Quite quickly, Coleridge's poem, and therefore the convoluted rationality of the speaker , take a brutal turn. turning away from reality and turning towards feelings whose roots are now indefinable, illness and misery, tangible proof of the harm that his fantasy does to him, become nothing more than “obscure pains” (12) which “have made of his dreams of curses” (12). , the dream world suggests sleep, submission and abandonment. Although Coleridge's speaker dutifully fears this world of sleep, he fails to deny it: "each night spurned in vain, / Each night was scattered by its own cries" (13-14). Sucked into the muscle of his desire, even his sincere desire to turn away cannot hinder the journey into darkness. Thus, Coleridge envelops the reader in the command of the speaker's heart. The speaker is no longer tormented by "dark pains" (12), but recognizes that his previous conflict is only the equally magnificent remnant of hope: "For the despair of love is only the languid ghost of hope! (20). In deliberation, Coleridge undoes the speaker's tiny sense of rationality and creates a world where everything is vision, everything is wonderfully intangible, and where fantasy itself offers relief from complex reality. When, one could say, the situation is reversed in relation to reality, this condition of "hope" (17) in capital letters serves as a source of pride for the speaker, of "his inner happiness and his boasting" ( 17). Coleridge's speaker makes a conscious choice to live according to his dreams. Moreover, he only needs a simple goal in himself to live day by day: "For this one he groans hourly, / He wishes and can wish this alone!" (21-22) Although physical human needs remain, Coleridge's primary concern is the hungers and thirsts of the soul. “Visionary Hope” romanticizes dreamlike nostalgia because it is a means of expressing a splendid sensitivity to emotion. The contrasting elements of pleasure and pain represent Coleridge's constant questioning of the realistic validity of a dream beyond the formation of an ideal perspective: "Pierced, like the light of heaven, before its gleams/ (so the visionary in love the judge)” (23-24). ). While the visionary will be inherently captive to an ignorant hope of achieving the unattainable, he lives in a quiet sense of certainty, an understanding of his own ignorance and blind faith, in the half-reality of imagining what would mean achieving your goal. In a word, Coleridge's character fully lives his dream while being aware that it does not and will not come true...