Where The Bee Sucks
Where the Bee Sucks is from Shakespeare's play The Tempest. In the play, it's sung by the fairy spirit Ariel. So it's from the point of view of a fairy.
Where The Bee Sucks
Poem
Where the bee sucks, there suck I:
In a cowslip's bell I lie;
There I couch when owls do cry.
On the bat's back I do fly
After summer merrily:
Merrily, merrily, shall I live now,
Under the blossom that hangs on the bough.
Notes
Thomas Arne set this to music. He's best known for the patriotic song Rule, Britannia!.
John Clare wrote a poem called Clock-a-Clay which makes a direct reference to this poem. Clare's poem is about a ladybird/ladybug. The 1st two lines in his poem are "In the cowslip pips I lie, Hidden from a buzzing fly..." Compare that to the 1st two lines of "Where the Bee Sucks".
Thanks and Acknowledgements
The 1st image of Ariel among the flowers comes from the book "The Tempest" (1882) by Laura Jewry Valentine.
The 2nd image of Ariel on the bat's back is by Louis Rhead (1857 - 1926).
