Section 2 Summary

Line 21-24

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—

• Our speaker picks up in this stanza where he left off: bummed out.
• He's not angry; he's not frustrated. He's just… depressed.
• He notes that this is a "drowsy, unimpassioned" feeling (22). You know that feeling, where you just feel like you don't want to get out of bed in the morning? Well, our speaker's got it in spades.
• He can't get rid of it.

Lines 25-29

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;

• In these lines, we meet a new character. Say hi to… "Lady," everyone. "Lady"… this is everyone.
• So, "Lady" doesn't get an actual name. We know she's a she, but that's about all the detail we have for now.
• Lucky for us, we have research on our side. Thanks to the work of historical scholarship, know that the original version used "Sara" instead of "Lady." That would be Coleridge's love interest Sara Hutchinson if you're keeping track at home. Check out "In a Nutshell" for the scoop on her.
• Coleridge must have thought that he was being too obvious, though, because he changed "Sara" first to "William," as in William Wordsworth, before settling on "Lady." Again, "In a Nutshell" clears up who these folks are.
• Our speaker wants this lady to know that he's feeling weak ("wan") and out of spirits.
• His thoughts have been distracted ("woo'd") by a nearby "throstle," or a song thrush.
• He's been just sitting here, all (un-stormy) night, staring at the yellow-green sky.
• It sounds like a blast.

Lines 30-38

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!

• Yep, the speaker is still looking at the sky here.
• He sees some flaky-looking clouds, as well as some stars behind or between them.
• He also sees the moon in the sky, but here it's a crescent, not the new moon he mentions in line 9.
• It must be that he was just imagining a new moon back in line 9, since he wanted that omen to foretell a storm, just like it did in "The Ballad of Sir Patrick Spence."
• Here, though, we're back to reality. The speaker sees the moon, clouds, and stars up above, and he recognizes how beautiful they all are.
• Sadly, he doesn't feel that beauty, though. This dude is seriously bummed out.