Received: from mgmt.utoronto.ca (fmgmt.mgmt.utoronto.ca [128.100.43.253]) by mail3.texas.net (8.8.8/2.4) with SMTP id JAA24844 for ; Sat, 21 Feb 1998 09:54:57 -0600 (CST) Received: by mgmt.utoronto.ca (5.65v4.0/1.1.10.7/26Jan98-0432AM) id AA13648; Sat, 21 Feb 1998 10:51:56 -0500 From: LouisFors@aol.com Message-Id: <7b52eb88.34eef812@aol.com> Date: Sat, 21 Feb 1998 10:51:43 EST To: emweb@fmgmt.mgmt.utoronto.ca Mime-Version: 1.0 Subject: More on #447 and the bees Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Mailer: AOL 3.0 for Windows 95 sub 49 Sender: owner-emweb@fmgmt.mgmt.utoronto.ca Precedence: bulk Reply-To: emweb@fmgmt.mgmt.utoronto.ca Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII X-UIDL: 33c5d1e83e0afba99d794e45cc3c86c9 Marily Nelson wrote for help on #447: Could - do - more for Thee - Wert Thou a Bumble Bee -- Since for the Queen, have I - Naught but Bouquet? I suggested in an earlier post, last night, that one should begin by considering the role of bees in the poem. Let me expand that possibility a bit, now that I have had some sleep. Here is a look at the approach: Could I do more for you - If you were a Bumble Bee - Since for the Queen (bee), I have Nothing but a Bouquet? Given the bee hypothesis, one guesses that the bumble bee is a lowly creature when compared with the queen bee. Bumblebees, like honey bees are social creatures, keeping hives, but underground, as my dictionary research says. I am GUESSING that they have the same social arrangement as honey bees, namely that the workers, who scout and bring back honey and keep the hive in good repair, are quite subservient to the queen bee. The worker bees also happen to be males. So the queen bee is the monarch, and to her go all things good, including bouquets, symbolically. Given all that, ED may be musing about what the lowliest among us should receive, or she may be addressing someone in particular, perhaps in a bitter tone, saying "I know you are highly placed, so I send the usual bouquet. If you weren't at the top of the social heap, maybe I could think of something more creative to send your way." But, of course, that is only one reading. Doubtless others will follow. Louis Forsdale