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
- 29 sec read
- 115 Views
Quick analysis:
Scheme | XAXA XBXB XXXCC |
---|---|
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 518 |
Words | 97 |
Stanzas | 3 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 6 |
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"Sweet honey-sucking bees" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2023. Web. 22 Mar. 2023. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/24227/sweet-honey-sucking-bees>.
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