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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


WORK WITHOUT HOPE by SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE

Poet Analysis

First Line: ALL NATURE SEEMS AT WORK, SLUGS LEAVE THEIR LAIR
Last Line: AND HOPE WITHOUT AN OBJECT CANNOT LIVE.
Subject(s): LABOR & LABORERS; SPRING; WORK; WORKERS;

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.

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 unbrighten'd, 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.



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