The Droning Bee

The droning bee has wakened up

& humming round the buttercup

& round the bright star daisy hums—

O'er every blade of grass he passes—

The dewdrop shines like looking glasses

In every drop a bright sun comes—

'Tis march, and spring, bright days we see—

Round every blossom hums the bee.

As soon as daylight in the morning

The crimson curtains of the dawning—

We hear, and see, the humming bee—

Searching for hedgerow violets

Happy with the food he gets—

Swimming o'er brook,& meadow lea—

Then sits on maple stools at rest

On the green mosses velvet breast.

About the molehill round & round,

The wild bee hums with honeyed sound—

Singing a song of spring and flowers—

To schoolboys heard in sunny hours

When all the waters seem a blaze

Of fire and sunshine in such days

When bees buzz on with coal black eye

Joined by the yellow butterfly

& when it comes a summer shower

It still will go from flower to flower

Then underneath the rushes—

It sees the silver daisy flower

& there it spends a little hour

Then hides among the bushes

But whence they come from where they go

None but the wiser schoolboy's know

(Knight Transcript - from the Northampton Asylum, therefore after 1841)