Coleridge's "Work Without Hope": A Caution to Potential Poets

     Samuel Taylor Coleridge's sonnet entitled "Work Without Hope" seems, on the surface, merely to juxtapose nature with his own dejected state of writer's block. The parallel is very striking, as are his images of nature, to the point that it is easy to get caught up in his descriptive phrases and polarities of emotion and lose the significance of the final couplet. The last two lines state that "Work without Hope draws nectar in a sieve, And Hope without an object cannot live" (Coleridge 614). A specific interpretation, in which the lines relate only to Coleridge as the speaker, applies the concept of fruitless hope without an object to Coleridge as he is "the sole unbusy thing" in the poem and thus doomed to wish for a poet's laurel wreath while self-doubt results in unproductiveness. However, a more universal interpretation allows for the inclusion of the penultimate line, and its inherent association with pointless labor, as the "nectar" remains uncollected. This universal interpretation, in turn, is aimed specifically at aspiring poets.
     In this more universal sense, the nectar can be equated with poetic inspiration which remains elusive despite pointed effort; this is then inverted in the final line in which the inspiration is unfocused and thus just as ineffectual. The juxtaposition in this universal reading is between the classic "rock and a hard place" as both the uninspired labor and the unfocused yearning result in the same thing: absolutely nothing. As a result, the broader interpretation of the lines seems to be less about Coleridge than about the futility of attempting to achieve greatness as a poet. Even with the application of this less specific reading, however, there remains the question as to who Coleridge actually intended for his primary audience to be.
     The most accessible interpretation, namely that of Coleridge lamenting about his own specific dilemma with futility in composition, allows for the inference of a sympathetic audience of fellow poets, acquaintances, and strangers who are all able to relate to Coleridge's feeling of helplessness in his chosen field. Using this lens, it is possible to picture Wordsworth listening to Coleridge read this piece and understanding exactly why he chose images of industrious creatures in nature to highlight his own inactivity and hopelessness. This interpretation definitely contains a lot of pathos, but it is not the only message that Coleridge intended to evoke with the final couplet.
     Coleridge's intended audience for the deeper message contained within the final couplet is assuredly the population of aspiring poets. The first intimation of this appears in the line before the beginning of the final couplet: "And would you learn the spells that drowse my soul?"(Coleridge 614). This is subtly hinting at those who would wish to learn to write poetry, as who else would want to "learn the spells" of Coleridge? The fact that Coleridge refers to his vocation and its inherent practices as "spells" hints at their power to bewitch their recipient until he or she falls into the drowsy stupor of helplessness which afflicts those who are unable to reconcile their high aims with true productivity.
     The subtle intimation of a warning in the line preceding the final couplet is of course enhanced by the message in those final two lines: that of the impossibility of combining both inspiration and industry in order to produce a laurel-worthy poem. This message of futility is aimed at aspiring poets in order that they might more fully examine their motives in choosing that profession, and either rethink their choice or go into it with open eyes and the knowledge it takes to combat hopelessness. In this way, Coleridge serves as a beneficent mentor who uses his own wealth of experience to prepare others who would follow in his footsteps.