Work Without Hope[;] Lines Composed 21st February 1825

1. 1All Nature seems at work. Slugs leave their lair--
2. 2The bees are stirring--birds are on the wing--
3. 3And Winter slumbering in the open air,
4. 4Wears on his smiling face a dream of Spring!
5. 5And I the while, the sole unbusy thing,
6. 6Nor honey make, nor pair, nor build, nor sing.

1. 7Yet well I ken the banks where amaranths blow,
2. 8Have traced the fount whence streams of nectar flow.
3. 9Bloom, O ye amaranths! bloom for whom ye may,
4. 10For me ye bloom not! Glide, rich streams, away!
5. 11With lips unbrightened, wreathless brow, I stroll:
6. 12And would you learn the spells that drowse my soul?
7. 13Work without Hope draws nectar in a sieve,
8. 14And Hope without an object cannot live.