Analysis of The Bees and Flies
A Farmer of the Augustan Age
Perused in Virgil's golden page
The story of the secret won
From Proteus by Cyrene's son--
How the dank sea-god showed the swain
Means to restore his hives again.
More briefly, how a slaughtered bull
Breeds honey by the bellyful.
The egregious rustic put to death
A bull by stopping of its breath,
Disposed the carcass in a shed
With fragrant herbs and branches spread,
And, having well performed the charm,
Sat down to wait the promised swarm.
Nor waited long. The God of Day
Impartial, quickening with his ray
Evil and good alike, beheld
The carcass--and the carcass swelled.
Big with new birth the belly heaves
Beneath its screen of scented leaves.
Past any doubt, the bull conceives!
The farmer bids men bring more hives
To house the profit that arrives;
Prepares on pan and key and kettle,
Sweet music that shall make 'em settle;
But when to crown the work he goes,
Gods! What a stink salutes his nose!
Where are the honest toilers? Where
The gravid mistress of their care?
A busy scene, indeed, he sees,
But not a sign or sound of bees.
Worms of the riper grave unhid
By any kindly coffin-lid,
Obscene and shameless to the light,
Seethe in insatiate appetite,
Through putrid offal, while above
The hissing blow-fly seeks his love,
Whose offspring, supping where they supt,
Consume corruption twice corrupt.
Scheme | AABBXXCC DDEEXX FFEXGGG HHIIJJ KKLLEXMMNNEX |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 0101011 0101101 01010101 11111 10111101 11011101 11010101 110101 001010111 01110111 01010001 11010101 01010101 11110101 11010111 010100111 1001011 01000101 11110101 01111101 1101011 01011111 11010101 011101010 110111110 11110111 11010111 1101011 0110111 01010111 11011111 110111 11010101 01010101 10110 1101101 01011111 111111 01010101 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,311 |
Words | 236 |
Sentences | 14 |
Stanzas | 5 |
Stanza Lengths | 8, 6, 7, 6, 12 |
Lines Amount | 39 |
Letters per line (avg) | 27 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 213 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 47 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 31, 2023
- 1:11 min read
- 123 Views
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