Deborah: " The Honey- Bee" 295 



joining was sufficiently curious. "I swear, by the bees 

 of Hymettus, to be loyal and obedient to the Directress 

 of the Order, to wear all my life the medal of the Fly, and 

 to fulfil, as long as I live, the statutes of the Order ; and, if 

 I am false to my oath, may honey turn in my mouth to gall, 

 wax in my hands to grease, the flowers I gather to nettles, 

 and may wasps and hornets be for ever stinging me." 



In metaphor, simile, and moral, the poetic bee abounds. 

 Thus swarming suggests colonisation : 



"Of Britain to invite her to cast off 

 Her swarms, and in succession send them forth." 



"Their surcease grew so great, as forced them at last 

 To seeke another soyle (as Bees doe when they caste)." Drayton. 



Young on the same simile introduces the key-and- 

 saucepan : 



" Each soul 



That ever animated human clay 

 Now wakes, is on the wing ; and when, oh ! where 

 Will the swarm settle ? When the trumpet's call 

 As sounding brass collects us, round Heaven's throne 

 Conglobed we bask in everlasting day 

 (Paternal splendour) and adhere for ever." 



Its voice affords similes for populous haunts of man : 



" And there the murmur of the neighbouring quay 

 Dwells like the humming of a drowsy bee." Faber. 



" Bee-like, bubbling, busy hum 

 Of cities." Byron. 



Sweet soft speech, mellifluous : 



"The working bees' soft melting gold, 

 That which the waxen mines enfold, 

 Flows not so sweet as do the tones 

 Of his 1 tuned accents." Crashaw. 



Cupid's. 



