Samuel Coleridge

In “Work Without Hope,” by Samuel Coleridge, the speaker contrasts himself with the busy and lively nature around him. He is full of despair as he watches all that is going on around him and knows that he is not contributing to it. In the first six lines, he describes nature 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!” (ln 1-4).

In the next line, he contrasts the first four lines with a description of himself. He states, “And I, the while, the sole unbusy thing, nor honey make, nor pair, nor build, nor sing.” He describes himself as being out of place in this scene. Everything seems to be busy and productive except for him. It is this feeling that gives him his feeling of despair. He feels like an outsider looking in, rather than a part of nature. He is simply an observer watching everything going on around him.

In the next stanza the speaker speaks to nature directly.

“Bloom, O ye amaranths! Bloom for whom ye may, for me ye bloom not! Glide, rich streams, away!” (ln 9-10)

He realizes that the beauty of nature and all of its wonderment was not created for him. He does not feel worthy enough to have the blooms be for him. After all, he is merely an observer. He strolls along miserably “lips unbrightened, wreathless brow.” A lifeless and dreary image of him is given that certainly contrasts the lively nature surrounding him.

Coleridge’s overall theme and message in the sonnet are in the last two lines.

“Work without Hope draws nectar in a sieve, and Hope without an object cannot live” (ln 13-14)

Hope is capitalized and mentioned twice in these lines because it is the thing that he needs to be able to be productive in his world. Drawing nectar through a sieve is an impossible task and so is work without hope. To want to do some sort of work, there must be some sort of hope of making things better. This is why Hope must have an object also. Hope does not exist by itself. There must be an object, something to hope for, or it will eventually die. The speaker in the poem perhaps is missing this object, something for which to hope. Without hope, he is unable to work and contribute to nature causing him to only be the observer in this poem.