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BEES
[ Also see Animals Insects ]

Look on the bee upon the wing 'mong flowers;
  How brave, how bright his life! then mark, him hiv'd,
    Cramp'd, cringing in his self-built, social cell,
      Thus it is in the world-hive; most where men
        Lie deep in cities as in drifts.
      - Philip James Bailey

The pedigree of honey
  Does not concern the bee;
    A clover, any time, to him
      Is aristocracy.
      - Emily Dickinson, Poems (V)

His labor is a chant,
  His idleness a tune;
    Oh, for a bee's experience
      Of clovers and of noon!
      - Emily Dickinson, Poems--The Bee (XV)

Burly, dozing humblebee,
  Where thou art is clime for me.
    Let them sail for Porto Rique,
      Far-off heats through seas to seek.
        I will follow thee alone,
          Thou animated torrid-zone!
      - Ralph Waldo Emerson, The Humble-Bee

Seeing only what is fair,
  Sipping only what is sweet,
    . . . .
      Leave the chaff, and take the wheat.
      - Ralph Waldo Emerson, The Humble-Bee

You are my honey, honeysuckle, I am the bee.
      - Albert H. Fitz,
        The Honeysuckle and the Bee,
        a song from 1901

The careful insect 'midst his works I view,
  Now from the flowers exhaust the fragrant dew,
    With golden treasures load his little thighs,
      And steer his distant journey through the skies.
      - John Gay, Rural Sports (canto I, l. 82)

It takes a bee to get the honey out.
      - Arthur Guiterman

Bees work for man, and yet they never bruise
  Their Master's flower, but leave it having done,
    As fair as ever and as fit to use;
      So both the flower doth stay and honey run.
      - George Herbert, The Church--Providence

For pitty, Sir, find out that Bee
  Which bore my Love away
    I'le seek him in your Bonnet brave,
      I'le seek him in your eyes.
      - Robert Herrick, Mad Nan's Song

"O bees sweet bees!" I said; "that nearest field
  Is shining white with fragrant immortelles,
    Fly swiftly there and drain those honey wells."
      - Helen Hunt (Helen Hunt Jackson)

"O bees, sweet bees!" I said; "that nearest field
  Is shining white with fragrant immortelles
    Fly swiftly there and drain those honey wells."
      - Helen Hunt Jackson (Helen Hunt), My Bees

Even bees, the little almsmen of spring bowers, know there is richest juice in poison-flowers.
      - John Keats (1)

Listen! O, listen!
  Here come the hum the golden bees
    Underneath full blossomed trees,
      At once with glowing fruit and flowers crowned.
      - James Russell Lowell, The Sirens (l. 94)

As busie as a Bee.
      - John Lyly (Lylie or Lyllie),
        Euphues and his England (p. 252)

The honey-bee that wanders all day long
  The field, the woodland, and the garden o'er,
    To gather in his fragrant winter store,
      Humming in calm content his winter song,
        Seeks not alone the rose's glowing breast,
          The lily's dainty cup, the violet's lips,
            But from all rank and noxious weeds he sips
              The single drop of sweetness closely pressed
                Within the poison chalice.
      - Anne Charlotte Lynch (Anne C.L. Botta),
        The Lesson of the Bee

The bee is enclosed, and shines preserved, in a tear of the sisters of Phaeton, so that it seems enshrined in its own nectar. It has obtained a worthy reward for its great toils; we may suppose that the bee itself would have desired such a death.
      - Martial (Marcus Valerius Martialis),
        Epigrams (bk. IV, ep. 32)

In the nice bee, what sense so subtly true
  From pois'nous herbs extracts the healing dew?
      - Alexander Pope, Essay on Man (ep. I, 219)

So work the honey-bees;
  Creatures, by a rule in nature teach
    The art of order to a peopled kingdom.
      They have a king and officers of sorts;
        Where some, like magistrates, correct at home;
          Others, like merchants, venture trade abroad;
            Others, like soldiers, armed in their stings,
              Make boot upon the summer's velvet buds;
                Which pillage they, with merry march, bring home,
                  To the tent royal of their emperor;
                    Who, busied in his majesty, surveys
                      The singing masons building roofs of gold;
                        The civil citizens kneading up the honey;
                          The poor mechanic porters crowding in
                            Their heavy burdens at his narrow gate;
                              The sad-ey'd justice, with his surly hum,
                                Delivering o'er to executors pale
                                  The lazy yawning drone.
      - William Shakespeare

Therefore doth heaven divide
  The state of man in divers functions,
    Setting endeavor in continual motion;
      To which is fixed as an aim or butt
        Obedience; for so work the honeybees,
          Creatures that by a rule in nature teach
            The act of order to a peopled kingdom.
              They have a king, and officers of sorts,
                Where some like magistrates correct at home,
                  Others like merchants venture trade abroad,
                    Others like soldiers armed in their stings
                      Make boot upon the summer's velvet buds,
                        Which pillage they with merry march bring home
                          To the tent-royal of their emperor,
                            Who, busied in his majesties, surveys
                              The singing masons building roofs of gold,
                                The civil citizens kneading up the honey,
                                  The poor mechanic porters crowding in
                                    Their heavy burdens at his narrow gate,
                                      The sad-eyed justice with his surly hum
                                        Delivering o'er to executors pale
                                          The lazy yawning drone.
      - William Shakespeare,
        The Life of King Henry the Fifth
         (Canterbury at I, ii)

The solitary Bee
  Whose buzzing was the only sound of life,
    Flew there on restless wing,
      Seeking in vain one blossom where to fix.
      - Robert Southey, Thalaba (bk. VI, st. 13)

The little bee returns with evening's gloom,
  To join her comrades in the braided hive,
    Where, housed beside their might honey-comb,
      They dream their polity shall long survive.
      - Charles Tennyson Turner,
        A Summer Night in the Bee Hive

Even bees, the little alms-men of spring flowers,
  Know there is richest juice in poison-flowers.
      - Isaac Watts

How doth the little busy bee
  Improve each shining hour,
    And gather honey all the day
      From every opening flower.
      - Isaac Watts, Against Idleness

The wild Bee reels from bough to bough
  With his furry coat and his gauzy wing,
    Now in a lily cup, and now
      Setting a jacinth bell a-swing,
        In his wandering.
      - Oscar Wilde (Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde),
        Her Voice


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