A Poem About Bees

Updated: November 2024

If you are seeking a poem about bees, take a look at these by Rudyard Kipling, Emily Dickinson, Norman Rowland Gale and Kahlil Gibran.

Below you can also read some lovely poems submitted by visitors to this website.

Poems About Bees

Excerpt from a poem by Isaac Watts,  parodied by Lewis Caroll in Alice in Wonderland.

How doth the little busy bee
Improve each shining hour,
And gather honey all the day
From every shining flower!


How skilfully she builds her cell!
How neat she spreads the wax!
And labours hard to store it well
With the sweet food she makes.

THE BEE - by Emily Dickinson
(1830-1886)

Like trains of cars on tracks of plush
I hear the level bee:
A jar across the flowers goes,
Their velvet masonry


Withstands until the sweet assault
Their chivalry consumes,
While he, victorious, tilts away
To vanquish other blooms.


His feet are shod with gauze,
His helmet is of gold;
His breast, a single onyx
With chrysoprase, inlaid.


His labor is a chant,
His idleness a tune;
Oh, for a bee's experience
Of clovers and of noon!

Bees – by Norman Rowland Gale

You voluble,
Velvety
Vehement fellows
That play on your
Flying and
Musical cellos,
All goldenly
Girdled you
Senerade clover,
Each artist in
Bass but a
Bibulous rover!

You passionate,
Powdery
Pastoral bandits,
Who gave you your
Roaming and
Rollicking mandates?
Come out of my
Foxglove; come
Out of my roses
You bees with the
Plushy and
Plausible noses!

Extract from Kahlil Gibran’s The Prophet

And now you ask in your heart,
"How shall we distinguish that which is good in pleasure from that which is not good?"
Go to your fields and your gardens, and you shall learn that it is the pleasure of the bee to gather honey of the flower,
But it is also the pleasure of the flower to yield its honey to the bee.
For to the bee a flower is a fountain of life,
And to the flower a bee is a messenger of love,
And to both, bee and flower, the giving and the receiving of pleasure is a need and an ecstasy.

People of Orphalese, be in your pleasures like the flowers and the bees.

The Bee-Boy’s Song by Rudyard Kipling


Bees! Bees! Hark to your bees!
"Hide from your neigbours as much as you please,
But all that has happened, to us you must tell,
Or else we will give you no honey to sell!"

A maiden in her glory,
Upon her wedding - day,
Must tell her Bees the story,
Or else they'll fly away.
Fly away -- die away --
Dwindle down and leave you!
But if you don't deceive your Bees,
Your Bees will not deceive you.

Marriage, birth or buryin',
News across the seas,
All you're sad or merry in,
You must tell the Bees.
Tell 'em coming in an' out,
Where the Fanners fan,
'Cause the Bees are just about
As curious as a man!

Don't you wait where the trees are,
When the lightnings play,
Nor don't you hate where Bees are,
Or else they'll pine away.
Pine away -- dwine away --
Anything to leave you!
But if you never grieve your Bees,
Your Bees'll never grieve you.

 From The Long Trail by Rudyard Kipling

There’s a whisper down the field
where the year has shot her yield,
And the ricks stand grey to the sun,
Singing: - ‘Over then, come over,
for the bee has quit the clover,
And your English summer’s done.’

From L’Allegro – by John Milton

While the bee with honied thigh,
That her flowery work doth sing,
And the waters murmuring
And such consort as they keep,

Entice the dewy-feather’d sleep.

From Winnie-the-Pooh  by A. A. Milne

Isn’t it funny
How a bear likes honey?
Buzz! Buzz! Buzz!
I wonder why he does?

Verse - Ogden Nash

I eat my peas with honey
I’ve done it all my life
It makes the peas taste funny
But it keeps them on the knife!

Below are some poems about bees submitted by visitors to BuzzAboutBees.net.

Come to my garden little bumble bees
Come to my garden little bumble bees, I've grown so many flowers for you to please, I have lupins, foxgloves and delphiniums too, borage..

My Friends The Bees 
I love to eat some honey I've loved it all my life. I lick it of my fingers An yes, even off the knife. Bees have just always been there Doing what …

Bees Song 
Bees song (To the tune of All Through The Night) Bees are buzzing, pollinating All through the day Feeding larvae, honey making All through the …

Lucky Man 
What a wonder it is to see... my wife feed honey to the honeybees. It almost makes me wipe a tear.. the care she takes and with no fear. She whispers …

Summer's End 
What's troubling the bees? Reports come back to the hive, not good, the messengers glum, no one feels much like dancing: rain upon rain, drought, …

When do the bees go? 
Why do the bees fly? Sigh and die Or be just bees When are they afraid, or fearless of all When do they fight, when do they fall When are they happy …

Bee in my tea 
BEE BEE! What are you doing BEE? I am swimming in you TEA! GEE! Please get out of my tea. GEE!

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