The Bumblebee
You better not fool with a Bumblebee!--Ef you don't think they can sting--you'll see!They're lazy to look at, an' kindo' goBuzzin' an' bummin' aroun' so slow,An' ac' so slouchy an' all fagged out,Danglin' their legs as they drone aboutThe hollyhawks 'at they can't climb in'Ithout ist a-tumble-un out agin!Wunst I watched one climb clean 'wayIn a jim'son-blossom, I did, one day,--An' I ist grabbed it--an' nen let go--An' "Ooh-ooh! Honey! I told ye so!"Says The Raggedy Man; an' he ist runAn' pullt out the stinger, an' don't laugh none,An' says: "They has ben folks, I guess,'At thought I wuz predjudust, more er less,--Yit I still muntain 'at a BumblebeeWears out his welcome too quick fer me!"
Words in this poem
- bumblebee n.
- A large bee of the genus Bombus, sometimes called humblebee; -- so named from its sound. [OE. bumblen to make a humming noise (dim. of bum, v.i.) + bee. Cf. Humblebee.]
- stinger n.
- One who, or that which, stings.
- folks n.
- In Anglo-Saxon times, the people of a group of townships or villages; a community; a tribe. [AS. folc; akin to D. volk, OS. & OHG. folk, G. volk, Icel. f, Sw. & Dan. folk, Lith. pulkas crowd, and perh. to E. follow.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Bumblebee is in the public domain. This text is taken from Riley Child-Rhymes, Project Gutenberg ebook #9777; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: James Whitcomb Riley, The Bumblebee, in Riley Child-Rhymes (1890), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #9777, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/riley-child-rhymes/the-bumblebee.html, id L25042.
Form and metre
The Bumblebee is 18 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets. The metre is trochaic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 70%).
See other poems in rhyming couplets, other poems in trochaic pentameter.
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.
- 1 AABBCCDDEEBBFFGGAA bumblebeeA · seeA · goB · slowB · outC · aboutC · inD · aginD · wayE · dayE · goB · soB · runF · noneF · guessG · lessG · bumblebeeA · meA
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 trochaic pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| You better not fool with a Bumblebee!-- | 10 | ·/˘····/˘˘ |
| Ef you don't think they can sting--you'll see! | 9 | ········· |
| They're lazy to look at, an' kindo' go | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| Buzzin' an' bummin' aroun' so slow, | 9 | ········· |
| An' ac' so slouchy an' all fagged out, | 10 | ·//·/˘···· |
| Danglin' their legs as they drone about | 9 | ········· |
| The hollyhawks 'at they can't climb in | 9 | ········· |
| 'Ithout ist a-tumble-un out agin! | 10 | ····/˘··˘/ |
| Wunst I watched one climb clean 'way | 7 | ······· |
| In a jim'son-blossom, I did, one day,-- | 10 | ····/˘···· |
| An' I ist grabbed it--an' nen let go-- | 10 | ····˘····· |
| An' "Ooh-ooh! Honey! I told ye so!" | 9 | ···/˘···· |
| Says The Raggedy Man; an' he ist run | 10 | ··/˘˘····· |
| An' pullt out the stinger, an' don't laugh none, | 10 | ····/˘···· |
| An' says: "They has ben folks, I guess, | 8 | ········ |
| 'At thought I wuz predjudust, more er less,-- | 10 | ·········· |
| Yit I still muntain 'at a Bumblebee | 10 | ·······/˘˘ |
| Wears out his welcome too quick fer me!" | 9 | ···/˘···· |
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.