Friday Poetry: Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Happy Friday!

I have managed quite a bit of reading today which has been nice.

My chosen poem this week is by Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834).

Work Without Hope

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 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. 

Samuel Taylor Coleridge