Coleridge, Samuel Taylor, "Work Without Hope. Lines Composed on a Day in February." in The Bijou; (London: William Pickering , 1828)
   
      
         
            
               The Bijou; 
               or Annual of Literature and the Arts
            
            compiled by William Fraser
            
            
               
                  William Pickering
               
               London
            
            1828
            
               
                  p. 28
               
            
         
      
      
         
             28 
            
               Work Without Hope. Lines Composed on a Day in February
            
            
               By S.T. Coleridge, Esq.
            
            
               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 forest 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.