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<h3> BUMBLE BEE </h3>
<p class="poem">
As I lay yonder in tall grass<br/>
A drunken bumble-bee went past<br/>
Delirious with honey toddy.<br/>
The golden sash about his body<br/>
Could scarce keep in his swollen belly<br/>
Distent with honey-suckle jelly.<br/>
Rose liquor and the sweet pea wine<br/>
Had filled his soul with song divine;<br/>
Deep had he drunk the warm night through:<br/>
His hairy thighs were wet with dew.<br/>
Full many an antic he had played<br/>
While the world went round through sleep and shade.<br/>
Oft had he lit with thirsty lip<br/>
Some flower-cup's nectared sweets to sip,<br/>
When on smooth petals he would slip<br/>
Or over tangled stamens trip,<br/>
And headlong in the pollen rolled,<br/>
Crawl out quite dusted o'er with gold.<br/>
Or else his heavy feet would stumble<br/>
Against some bud and down he'd tumble<br/>
Amongst the grass; there lie and grumble<br/>
In low, soft bass—poor maudlin bumble!<br/>
With tipsy hum on sleepy wing<br/>
He buzzed a glee—a bacchic thing<br/>
Which, wandering strangely in the moon,<br/>
He learned from grigs that sing in June,<br/>
Unknown to sober bees who dwell<br/>
Through the dark hours in waxen cell.<br/>
When south wind floated him away<br/>
The music of the summer day<br/>
Lost something: sure it was a pain<br/>
To miss that dainty star-light strain.<br/></p>
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