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Public-domain poetry · from the anthology

Work Without Hope

by Samuel Coleridge

Romantic · Medium · 15 linesnaturehope

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. (composed 21st February 1825)

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Public domain. Source: PoetryDB. Reproduced verbatim; see theanthology for the full collection.

Poems like Work Without Hope

Matched by documented rules, not taste: two points for every theme tag a poem shares with Work Without Hope, one point for the same era, one for a similar length.

  1. 1.Between the Dusk of a Summer Nightby William Ernest Henley

    Shares: nature, hope, similar length · 16 lines

  2. 2.To a Skylarkby Percy Bysshe Shelley

    Shares: nature, hope, Romantic era · 105 lines

  3. 3.A POISON TREEby William Blake

    Shares: nature, Romantic era, similar length · 16 lines

  4. 4.I Wandered Lonely As A Cloudby William Wordsworth

    Shares: nature, Romantic era, similar length · 24 lines

  5. 5.Lines Written In Early Springby William Wordsworth

    Shares: nature, Romantic era, similar length · 24 lines

  6. 6.The Garden of Loveby William Blake

    Shares: nature, Romantic era, similar length · 20 lines

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