A father asks the help of his former dead college coaches to give him the ability to run fast enough to save his little boy from highway traffic when running from a bee.  “The Bee” by James Dickey flows with the story of father’s love and almost superhuman effort to save his son. The story actually occurred in the life of the poet and his son.

There are four characters in the poem: the author or narrator; the son; the bee; and the coaches. Each of the characters come to life as the father sees the scene unfolding and runs to save his son not just from the bee but from the California traffic.

…near your screaming child is the sheer
Murder of California traffic: some bee hangs driving
Your child
Blindly onto the highway

Having played football in college, the poet asks his figurative coaches to spur him on in his running just as they did when he was at Clemson.  Apparently, his efforts had not always been stellar. The poem becomes almost frenetic when the narrator describes the scene when he fetches the boy: he screams not only in the situation but to the coaches who spurred him on; the son screams from fear; and the bee, also scared, screams as flies back to the woods.

Son-screams of fathers screams of dead coaches turning
To approval and from between us the bee rises screaming
With flight grainily shifting riding the rail fence

When the father and son pick themselves up and discover that their arms have road rash, the father gives his son advice to listen to his father because he wants him to be the best that he can be. A father may scream, curse, and stand up to his son, but he does it because he loves him.

The father takes the position that he must keep his son safe from bees and life in general.  He uses the metaphor of the football game in comparison to life’s struggles.  The son may have to sit on the bench sometimes, but that is okay since the father will always be beside him.

In the end, the father thanks his coaches for teaching him, encouraging him, and making it possible for his middle aged body to come to life and save his son.

Coach Shag Norton,
Tell me as you never yet have told me
To get the lead out scream whatever will get
The slow-motion of middle age off me