Telling the Bees (Masterplots II: Poetry, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: John Greenleaf Whittier
- First Published: 1858
- Type of Work: Ballad
- Genres: Poetry, Ballad
- Subjects: Nature, New England, Death or dying, Insects, Bees
The Poem
Originally published as “The Bees of Fernside,” “Telling the Bees” is a poem of fourteen quatrains, or stanzas of four lines each. Each stanza displays abab rhyming, which means that the first line rhymes with the third and the second line with the fourth, a typical pattern for a ballad. A note written by John Greenleaf Whittier precedes the poem, informing readers that on farms in Essex County, Massachusetts (Whittier’s home), a custom dating from colonial times was long observed: When a death occurred in the family, someone would “tell the bees”...
[The entire page is 1507 words long]
