Work Without Hope
by Samuel Taylor Coleridge

All Nature seems at work. Slugs leave their lair--
The bees are stirring--birds are on the wing--
And Winter slumbering in the open air,
Wears on his smiling face a dream of Spring !
And I, the while, the sole unbusy thing,
Nor honey make, nor pair, nor build, nor sing.

NOTE: The opposition of hope and despair is the focus of this poem. In essence, the speaker is a mere body without a spirit. In this context, the word "sole" actually becomes a play on the word "soul."

Yet well I ken the banks where amaranths blow,
Have traced the fount whence streams of nectar flow.
Bloom, O ye amaranths ! bloom for whom ye may,
For me ye bloom not ! Glide, rich streams, away !
With lips unbrightened, wreathless brow, I stroll :
And would you learn the spells that drowse my soul ?
Work without Hope draws nectar in a sieve,
And Hope without an object cannot live.

NOTE: Amaranths "are imaginary flowers that never fade" ("Amaranth").

PBS: In classical literature, the nectar might refer to ambrosia, which is said to be the food of the gods, which maintained their immortality. The theme of immortality is sustained by the dream-like images of the amaranths and nectar.