From: LouisFors@aol.com
Message-Id: <9469bda0.34ee4e7b@aol.com>
Date: Fri, 20 Feb 1998 22:48:08 EST
To: emweb@fmgmt.mgmt.utoronto.ca
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Subject: Re:  #447
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Marilyn Nelson wrote:

<snip>
....I wonder if one of you can elucidate
#447 for me.  Is it a riddle?  Was it in a letter?  Did it perhaps
accompany a bouquet she sent to someone?  Who might "the Queen" be?

<snip>

>447
>Could - I do more - for Thee -
>Wert Thou a Bumble Bee -
>Since for the Queen, have I -
>Nought but Bouquet?

A try at part of it:  She mentions a Bumble Bee, then shortly she mentions
"the Queen".  I'm not sure in what sense ED means "Bumble Bee," but if she
were talking about honey bees (and she may be being generic) the Queen Bee is
literally queen of the hive; all goes to her, including any bouquets, so to
speak.  The worker honey bees, by the way, are always male.  So there may be
some kind of hierarchy ED is working with.  For me I doubt that if sending
flowers is a literal necessity.  There is more to the poem, of course, but
I'll have to ponder that further, as will you.

Have fun,

Louis Forsdale