The Bee
Like trains of cars on tracks of plushI hear the level bee:A jar across the flowers goes,Their velvet masonry
Withstands until the sweet assaultTheir chivalry consumes,While he, victorious, tilts awayTo vanquish other blooms.
His feet are shod with gauze,His helmet is of gold;His breast, a single onyxWith chrysoprase, inlaid.
His labor is a chant,His idleness a tune;Oh, for a bee's experienceOf clovers and of noon!
Words in this poem
- plush n.
- A textile fabric with a nap or shag on one side, longer and softer than the nap of velvet. [F. pluche, peluche (cf. It. peluzzo), fr. L. pilus hair. See pile hair, and cf. Peruke.]
- chrysoprase n.
- An apple-green variety of chalcedony, colored by nickel. It has a dull flinty luster, and is sometimes used in jewelry.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Bee is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems by Emily Dickinson, Three Series, Complete, Project Gutenberg ebook #12242; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Emily Dickinson, The Bee, in Poems (1890–1896), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #12242, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/dickinson-poems/the-bee.html, id L03609.
Form and metre
The Bee is 16 lines in 4 stanzas of 4 lines each. The metre is common measure, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 89%). 92% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 6.6 syllables. 3 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 38% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in common measure.
Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.
Rhyme words, stanza by stanza
The word that ends each line, lettered by the rhyme it makes; a dash is a line whose rhyme the dictionary could not confirm.
- 2 -A-A assault · consumesA · away · bloomsA
- 4 -A-A chant · tuneA · experience · noonA
Scansion, line by line
Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. Read against common measure. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Like trains of cars on tracks of plush | 8 | ········ |
| I hear the level bee: | 6 | ···/˘· |
| A jar across the flowers goes, | 7 | ··˘/·/· |
| Their velvet masonry | 6 | ·/˘/˘˘ |
| Withstands until the sweet assault | 8 | ˘/····˘/ |
| Their chivalry consumes, | 6 | ·/˘˘˘/ |
| While he, victorious, tilts away | 8 | ··˘/˘·˘/ |
| To vanquish other blooms. | 6 | ·/˘/˘· |
| His feet are shod with gauze, | 6 | ······ |
| His helmet is of gold; | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| His breast, a single onyx | 7 | ···/˘/˘ |
| With chrysoprase, inlaid. | 6 | ·/˘˘/· |
| His labor is a chant, | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| His idleness a tune; | 6 | ·/˘˘·· |
| Oh, for a bee's experience | 7 | ····˘/˘ |
| Of clovers and of noon! | 6 | ·/˘··· |
The reader shows the same poem with its rhymes coloured and a stress row above each line, the notes beside their stanzas, and any word's definition on a tap; the analysis page takes the whole book apart. How every part of this site was made.