Jo Shapcott's Poems About Bees
Jo Shapcott is a poet well-known for her different works over the centuries. She has over the years written and published many works, won competitions and awards for them and in this case, we look at six of her poems; I Tell the Bees, The Threshold, The Hive, Going About With The Bees, CCD and The Sting. All the six poems share the theme 'bees' – a small insect known to make honey from pollen and nectar, stings too!
I Tell the Bees
As simple as the poem talks about 'everything pertaining to the care of the honey-bee', the poet uses sentences with enough length to explain the depth of the matter. The character in the poem is said to have left early in the morning carrying everything and leaving behind nothing but grudges. The fact that the poet describes the 'everything' means that the persona was quite passionate about the honey bee and the care needed. Having to see it all go away must have been painful but in the end when the sun rises maybe – just maybe everything will be okay.
I tend to think that the poem seeks to teach the reader that even if all seems to go away, there is still another sunrise, another chance to hug the problem and 'smell' new opportunities. A bee is a very hard working creature and the poet uses this to illustrate that despite the grudges about losing everything in the morning, you can work harder to overcome – press your cheek against the wood irrespective of being attacked by a swarm of bees and telling the bees that they are now yours.
The Threshold
They weren't tears is what I take out in the first line – disappointed that even though the persona wished for tears, it was nothing close to that, wings and fur to be exact. It's the irony of life that where there are trees there are no builders and where builders are, there are no trees. Well, in this case, there were bees all over rather than the tears – in and out of the ears, danced on the tongue and crowded for knowledge. Such a spectacle if you imagine it right and the magnitude of the scenery.
The reader will get the picture of a hive unlike in the first poem. The bees usually swarm around the hive, different speeds and directions, dancing and buzzing around – worker bees in and out of the hive as they are. The geography of nectar and the astronomy of pollen are spoken about at the end and for sure, bees will follow flowers for the sweet nectar and the pollen. They must land on something sweet otherwise they will not come close at all. The persona learns their language too with the zig zags and circles meaning he gets something in return.
In the best of way, the reader gets the picture that you attract what you are – you will attract a crowd to get the knowledge only if you have it and are willing to share. Whatever good you hear right into your ears is what will come out of the mouth once the words come out – speak and breathe goodness. The radiance emanating from the personas face in reality brings about dancing, learning a new thing, and dusting with golly and breathing bees, yes to the goodness. Just like the first poem, there is a linkage between what you want and what you have to do to get there.
The Hive
The dwelling of the bees, a place they feel secure to keep the queen and make honey; that's a hive. This poem is similar to the one above in the fact that the persona is as such, a structure of the hive; the colony within, the gaps, the honeycombs and humming.
If at all a colony is to grow in a hive, it's because the bees are comfortable with the hive and the surrounding environment – and the topping of the cake is that its summer already. The queen will then lay eggs to multiply the colony and this to a hive equals more honey. In the poem, there is everything nice about the bee. Its range of products are spread all over; gaps filled with honeycomb, pheromones, a sweet smell of bee bread and royal jelly, shining propolis and the feeling of a queendom.
The poet uses the likeness of the human body just as in the second poem – whatever is inside of a body. The inside of a hive buzzing with activities and the similarity with regard to the human body with such a thought that we live inside our bodies. The persona falls in love with how the 'hive' developed to give great bi-products that do not hesitate to make the surroundings even better. Leading to larger numbers, better scents, planting more flowers and best of it all a queendom bestowed. The poem describes the productivity of the queen and this would be likened by the reader as a woman who has been placed at the top spot to create life.
For sure if you were living in your body, you want the best out of it just as it should be. You will want the gaps in your life to be filled, a healthy brood inside, a pheromone to affect and influence others positively, sweet tasting bread, propolis to cover and shine but for all this to be sustained, clovers and bee sage have to be planted. You have to be surrounded by flowers to sustain the queendom. I would say this poem also connects with the other poems about achieving the desired state.
Going About With the Bees
Again in this poem, there is the structure of the hive likened to a human being just that here, the persona carries the hive inside of him/her – the bees forming the ribs and the mouth being wax and honey. Contrary to the picture seen in the last three poems, this one makes the passers-by stare.
The persona enters a bank which by all means is usually well guarded but we all know that bees are their own force of security – quite unmatchable so to say. As he does, he is sure that the bees mean business, flying out into the cool hall and landing on the counters. This seems like a calm situation to start with but the coming in of the bees steers the calmness far away. A short prayer is said, "Lord direct us".
The reader is left with a notion of a bank robbery once the poet states that the eyes watched as the money 'dissolved' like wax. Just before this, the queen turns somewhere near the heart – the organ known to control blood carrying oxygen around the body. This is a true definition of taking over the body and taking control. As bees are known to work together, in this poem unlike the other ones above, they are a different breed causing people to stare, they are coming in to disrupt calm; they are coming to destroy that others have worked for and making it dissolve just like wax does.
It is a different view on what the bee is capable of doing. Contrary to its sweet honey, quality wax, pollination and all the good things associated with it, we see a different side that will obviously end badly – of waving their antennae on paper and leather in a 'cool hall'.
CCD
Colony Collapse Disorder is what CCD stands for. This is the situation where all the worker bees in a colony depart and leave the hive and queen behind due to factors still not well known (Hood). This spells death for a colony that once filled a hive with activities.
The poet in this poem creates a picture of an abandoned hive – the body breaks, becomes bones, spaces left and the skin stretches. The poet goes straight to the point hitting the nail on the head by using short lines. We have moved down from a spectacle to behold in the first poem to this; honeycombs dissolving into blood and water. Everything is wrong about the hive coming from pheromone mismatch and the brood left behind sealed with wax, smelling sweat and breath and cells turned hexagonal.
This is quite similar to the last poem above where the bees are no longer attractive. Why would they leave? Why would they go and leave back the brood? Leave all the work they had put in on the honeycombs? Just as the reasons behind CCD are not well known, the reader wouldn't fully understand why the bees leave the body. Funny thing is the persona barely noticed as the wings twitched and the pheromone no longer matched.
That is a mistake one would never make if one wanted the bees to last. It must have been something that the body did no longer offer to incentivize the bees' staying. What mistake led to the smelly sweat and breath? The reader sees a disgusting image; a broken body, blood, and smell. For sure it's failing to do all things possible to keep the bees in the body, to avoid the stretched skin and spaces. Once the bees are fed up with the toxic environment in the body they will definitely leave. Strive to keep it in check because when the time comes, all the strong worker bees leave!
The Sting
The bee's sting is a matter of life and death because once the bee stings you, it doesn't survive the hit. When the queen is no longer laying thousands of eggs and is busy leading the swarm into the rooms then be assured that the heat is on. From the metaphor of a queen representing a great woman of productive benefits, this one is the opposite of that because you cannot shut a door on them. This poem uses quite longer lines than the previous one hinting to the reader that the poet really needs to put the point out there. That it is no longer the honey making bee but it's all a sting.
The poet is giving the sting no comparison – once they come, they represent their true self. The poet doesn't require to use any metaphor like in the other poems to describe the sting. It is what it is. After all this, the taste of destruction is all that the reader is left with even with the knowledge that the bee can be calm and helpful. Nothing good is left behind, not even the smell of honey and no bee follows. This is somewhat the true definition of what a bee can really do once provoked to the limit.
Conclusion
Jo uses the bee poetry to portray her work with the use of metaphors likening the bee and the hive with the human nature and humanly doings. She also uses different sentence structures to bring about different representation of the bees. It was an interesting choice to use a bee – a very small creature to bring across such enormous deductions in the real world.
References
Hood, Mike. Colony collapse disorder. 20 November 2018. Document. 10 December 2018.
