Answer:
The use of allusion in the novel "Nectar in a Sieve" helps to emphasize the theme of loss and hope.
Step-by-step explanation:
The epigraph of the novel "Nectar in a Sieve" by Kamala Markandaya is taken from the poem of Samuel Taylor Coleridge "Work Without Hope." The poem was written in1825. The poem is characterized as an unconventional sonnet. The poem ends with thought in the last couplet, "Work without Hope draws nectar in a sieve,
And Hope without an object cannot live." The narrator in this last couplet sums up the poem showing his despair. He explains the reason why he is doing no work is because he does not have any hope.
This couplet is used as an epigraph in the novel "Nectar in a Sieve" to show that the desperation of hopelessness shown by the narrator in the poem is the main idea of the novel also.