Youth And Age

Question 1

A03 context

Answer 1

Wrote when he was 51
Depth of depression
Opium addict
Estranged from his family

By this time he was living at the Grove on the outskirts of London, under the supervision of the physician Gillman

Unclear whether his growing use of opium and the brandy that it was dissolved in, was a symptom or a cause of his growing depression

Tillman was partially successful in controlling poets addiction

Coleridge stayed till his death

Question 2

References to youth

Answer 2

‘Friendship is a sheltering tree’
‘Hope clung feeding like a bee’
‘Joys that came down shower like’

Question 3

References to age

Answer 3

‘That only serves to make us grieve’

‘This body that does me grievious wrong’

Question 4

How does this pie reflect romantic beliefs

Answer 4

Imagination from youth - his despair is due to his loss of it due to age

Question 5

A05 interpretation

Answer 5

Only as old/young as you feel or in this case ‘think’
If you continue to have hope then you can remain optimistic and young in spirit in old age

You may ‘think’ you are still young but your body will betray you. Old age makes us ‘grieve’ for the youth we have lost

Question 6

Theme emphasis on freedom of individual

Answer 6

‘When youth and I lived in’t together/ Flowers and lovely; love is flower-like

Question 7

Theme importance of childhood

Answer 7

‘Hope clung feeding, like a bee’

‘Friendship is a sheltering tree’