The White Bees
by
I
LEGEND
Long ago Apollo called to Aristaeus, youngest of the shepherds,
Saying, “I will make you keeper of my bees.”
Golden were the hives and golden was the honey; golden, too, the music
Where the honey-makers hummed among the trees.
Happy Aristaeus loitered in the garden, wandered in the orchard,
Careless and contented, indolent and free;
Lightly took his labour, lightly took his pleasure, till the fated moment
When across his pathway came Eurydice.
Then her eyes enkindled burning love within him; drove him wild with longing
For the perfect sweetness of her flower-like face;
Eagerly he followed, while she fled before him, over mead and mountain,
On through field and forest, in a breathless race.
But the nymph, in flying, trod upon a serpent; like a dream she vanished;
Pluto’s chariot bore her down among the dead!
Lonely Aristaeus, sadly home returning, found his garden empty,
All the hives deserted, all the music fled.
Mournfully bewailing,–“Ah, my honey-makers, where have you departed?”
Far and wide he sought them over sea and shore;
Foolish is the tale that says he ever found them, brought them home in triumph,–
Joys that once escape us fly for evermore.
Yet I dream that somewhere, clad in downy whiteness, dwell the honey-makers,
In aerial gardens that no mortal sees:
And at times returning, lo, they flutter round us, gathering mystic harvest,–
So I weave the legend of the long-lost bees.
II
THE SWARMING OF THE BEES
Who can tell the hiding of the white bees’ nest?
Who can trace the guiding of their swift home flight?
Far would be his riding on a life-long quest:
Surely ere it ended would his beard grow white.
Never in the coming of the rose-red Spring,
Never in the passing of the wine-red Fall,
May you hear the humming of the white bee’s wing
Murmur o’er the meadow ere the night bells call.
Wait till winter hardens in the cold gray sky,
Wait till leaves are fallen and the brooks all freeze,
Then above the gardens where the dead flowers lie,
Swarm the merry millions of the wild white bees.
Out of the high-built airy hive,
Deep in the clouds that veil the sun,
Look how the first of the swarm arrive;
Timidly venturing, one by one,
Down through the tranquil air,
Wavering here and there,
Large, and lazy in flight,–
Caught by a lift of the breeze,
Tangled among the naked trees,–
Dropping then, without a sound,
Feather-white, feather-light,
To their rest on the ground.
Thus the swarming is begun.
Count the leaders, every one
Perfect as a perfect star
Till the slow descent is done.
Look beyond them, see how far
Down the vistas dim and gray,
Multitudes are on the way.
Now a sudden brightness
Dawns within the sombre day,
Over fields of whiteness;
And the sky is swiftly alive
With the flutter and the flight
Of the shimmering bees, that pour
From the hidden door of the hive
Till you can count no more.
Now on the branches of hemlock and pine
Thickly they settle and cluster and swing,
Bending them low; and the trellised vine
And the dark elm-boughs are traced with a line
Of beauty wherever the white bees cling.
Now they are hiding the wrecks of the flowers,
Softly, softly, covering all,
Over the grave of the summer hours
Spreading a silver pall.
Now they are building the broad roof ledge,
Into a cornice smooth and fair,
Moulding the terrace, from edge to edge,
Into the sweep of a marble stair.
Wonderful workers, swift and dumb,
Numberless myriads, still they come,
Thronging ever faster, faster, faster!
Where is their queen? Who is their master?
The gardens are faded, the fields are frore,–
What is the honey they toil to store
In the desolate day, where no blossoms gleam?
Forgetfulness and a dream!