Sweet honey-sucking bees

John Wilbye 1574 (Diss) – 1638 (Colchester)



Sweet honey-sucking bees, why do you still
surfeit on roses, pinks and violets,
as if the choicest nectar lay in them
wherewith you store your curious cabinets?

Ah, make your flight to Melisuavia's lips.
There may you revel in ambrosian cheer,
where smiling roses and sweet lilies sit,
Keeping their springtide graces all the year.

[Part 2:
Yet, sweet, take heed, all sweets are hard to get:
Sting not her soft lips, O, beware of that,
for if one flaming dart come from her eye,
was never dart so sharp, ah, then you die.
]

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on May 01, 2023

29 sec read
152

Quick analysis:

Scheme XAXA XBXB XXXCC
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 518
Words 97
Stanzas 3
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 6

John Wilbye

John Wilbye (baptized 7 March 1574 – September 1638) was an English madrigal composer. more…

All John Wilbye poems | John Wilbye Books

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