Deborah: " The Honey-Bee:' 279 



the chief feature of the bee's voice. It is "deep music, 

 pleasant melody to the weary traveller" (Southey), "lulling" 

 (Leyden), a "lullaby" (Charlotte Smith), "inviting sleep 

 sincere " (Thomson), " low vexed song " (W. Morris), " sad 

 murmuring tune " (W. Morris), " plaintive, inviting to rest," 

 " sleep-inviting," " drowsy " (Shelley). But Eliza Cook goes 

 too far when she says that bees " go droning by, and hum 

 themselves to sleep," which is exactly what they do not do. 

 Far more accurate seems Shelley's " soft strain," and Milton's 

 "singing at her work." The bee is not itself drowsy, 

 though its hum decidedly " invites to sleep," suggestive also 

 above, all other sounds, of peace. Rural poets, Clare, 

 Grahame, Hurdis, Bloomfield, and no doubt others, speci- 

 ally connect it with the Sabbath day, more struck perhaps 

 by it on that day " from the pause of rural toil." 



It is in many poets a note of gladness, a "joyous chorus," 

 and eloquent of gratitude : 



" And lo ! within my lonely bow'r 

 Th' industrious bee from many a flow'r 

 Collects the balmy dews. 

 For me, she says, the gems are born, 

 For me their silken robe adorn, 

 Their fragrant breath diffuse." 



" Sweet murmurer, may no rude storm 

 This hospitable scene deform, 

 Nor check thy gladsome toils ; 

 Still may the buds unsully'd spring. 

 Still show'rs and sunshine court thy wing 

 To these ambrosial spoils." Akenside. 



" On hanging cobwebs shone the dew, 

 And thick the wayside clovers grew, 

 The feeding bee had much to do, 

 So fast did honey-drops exude ; 

 She sucked and murmured, and was gone, 

 And lit on other blooms anon, 

 The while I learned a lesson on 

 The source and sense of gratitude." Jean Ingelow. 



