Through his depiction of items within his work, it is evident that Coleridge emphasizes the little things in his poems. In the piece, “Work without Hope” attention is majorly paid toward what jobs the small animals of nature have: “All Nature seems at work. Slugs leave their lair— The bees are stirring—birds are on the wing—” (348) An aspect of appreciation of the small jobs comes into effect. The speaker seems to want to be the only thing not being busy:
“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 blows, / 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…Work without Hope draws nectar in a sieve, /And Hope without an object cannot live.” (349)
It is highlighted that working without a purpose has no hope. There is no real way accomplishing anything if hope is not present, thus why the speaker keeps telling the unfading flowers to bloom. They still have purposes of showing their beauty and pollinating the earth; that cannot be displayed if the flowers have no hope or motivation to do so. Just like in life, individuals need to have a means to getting what they want or else, they will never obtain it.
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Bianca,
ReplyDeleteThis post shows some improvement over your previous ones--you focus on a single poem by Coleridge, and you offer more analysis of the passages you quote. Good job! In subsequent posts I would like to see you pay specific attention in your discussion to individual words and phrases--those details ought to help provide more specific traction for your ideas, and help your analysis go into more depth.