Scottish Poetry Selection
- The Message of the Bee

Here's a charming poem rather in the style of the much later Robert Louis Stevenson's "A Child's Garden of Verses" by Alexander Anderson (1845-1909).


The Message of the Bee

The humble bee is hiding
   In the blossom's golden cells;
He, and he only, can tell me
   Where the queen of the fairies dwells.
He is out on a royal message,
   He has her high command
To bring his tribute of honey
   To her table in fairyland.

And this is why he is ranging
   From blossom to blossom to-day;
He is busy making nectar
   For the lips of elf and fay.
He will carry the golden treasure
   To all their kith and kin,
To a bank in a wood where a portal
   Will open to let him in.

This tiniest of portals
   Lies hid as violets hide,
Two blue-bells stand as sentries,
   They guard it on either side.
He will hum, as he enters, the password,
   And they — they will nod in the sun,
Then stand again to their duty,
   And this is all that is done.

I too have seen this portal,
   And a child can understand
That there is no other doorway
   To the realms of fairyland.

Return to the Index of Scottish Poetry Selection




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