Analysis of The Bee's Song
Julia Ward Howe 1819 (New York City) – 1910 (Portsmouth)
Do not tie my wings,
Says the honey-bee;
Do not bind my wings,
Leave them glad and free.
If I fly abroad,
If I keep afar,
Humming all the day,
Where wild blossoms are,
'Tis to bring you sweets,
Rich as summer joy,
Clear--as gold and glass;
The divinest toy
That the god's have left,
Is the pretty hive,
Where a maiden reigns,
And the busy thrive.
If you bar my way,
Your delight is gone,
No more honey-gems;
From the heather borne;
No more tiny thefts,
From your neighbor's rose,
Who were glad to guess
Where its sweetness goes.
Let the man of arts
Ply his plane and glass;
Let the vapors rise,
Let the liquor pass;
Let the dusky slave
Till the southern fields;
Not the task of both
Such a treasure yields;
Honey, Pan ordained,
Food for gods and men,
Only in my way
Shall you store again.
Leave me to my will
While the bright days glow,
While the sleepy flowers
Quicken as I go.
When the pretty ones
Look to me no more,
Dead, beneath your feet,
Crushed and dabbled o'er;
In my narrow cell
I will fold my wing;
Sink in dark and chill,
A forgotten thing.
Can you read the song
Of the suppliant bee?
'Tis a poet's soul,
Asking liberty.
Scheme | ABABXCDCXEFEXGXG DXXXXHXH XFXFXIXIXJDJ KLXLXXXXXMKM XBXB |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 11111 10101 11111 11101 11101 11101 10101 11101 11111 11101 11101 011 10111 10101 10101 00101 11111 10111 11101 10101 11101 11101 10111 11101 10111 11101 10101 10101 1011 10101 10111 10101 10101 11101 10011 11101 11111 10111 101010 10111 10101 11111 10111 101010 01101 11111 10101 00101 11101 1011 10101 10100 |
Closest metre | Iambic trimeter |
Characters | 1,089 |
Words | 220 |
Sentences | 9 |
Stanzas | 5 |
Stanza Lengths | 16, 8, 12, 12, 4 |
Lines Amount | 52 |
Letters per line (avg) | 17 |
Words per line (avg) | 4 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 172 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 44 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:07 min read
- 114 Views
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