Coleridge

“Work Without Hope” is probably my favorite poem by Coleridge, because of the thoughts it inspires. This poem really makes me wonder if humans are really the most advanced of creatures. As Coleridge puts it, “All Nature seems at work.” (348; ll. 1). This includes not only animals, but humans as well, but there seem to be substantial differences, according to Coleridge, in the ways animals and humans carry out their work. Coleridge talks about how “The bees are stirring--birds are on the wing--” (348; ll. 2) and they seems completely content in this work, but Coleridge, the only human present is “the sole unbusy thing, / Nor honey make, nor pair, nor build, nor sing” (349; ll. 5-6). There is something completing and fulfilling about work. Most people will tell you this, and yet there Coleridge sits inactive.
In the second stanza, Coleridge seems to have picked up on this a bit, because the tone seem to shift. There is a bit of melancholy present in Coleridge’s words. “For me ye bloom not!” (349; ll. 10) he says to the amaranths before he calls to the streams to “Glide, rich streams, away” (349; ll. 10). He then describes himself in a way that is completely contrary to that of his previous descriptions of nature. He says “With lips unbrightened, wreathless brow, I stroll: / And would you learn the spells that drowse my soul?” (349; ll. 11-12). He is lifeless compared to the rest of nature, and realizes this is what would happen should the rest of nature become as “advanced” as humans. It is after this realization that he makes his most profound observation that “Work without Hope draws nectar in sieve, / And Hope without any object cannot live” (349; ll. 13-14). He notes that is as pointless to draw nectar (a very smooth liquid) through a sieve as it is for there to be work without hope, which is often how most humans work. People very often go through the tedium each day just to get to the next. There is no meaning in their work. This is very bad because as he goes on to say, if all people were to let go of a driving hope, then hope would die, because it is not an entity that can exist on its own. People must learn to not let go of hope and apply that hope to their daily lives in order to keep hope alive.