Bees are small winged insects that, together with other pollinators, play a vital role in preserving and maintaining biodiversity. So much of life on our planet depends on the labour of these hardworking and disciplined creatures. In the year 2017, the United Nations declared May 20 as World Bee Day, in recognition of their importance. And why May 20? It happens to be the birthday of Anton Janลกa, the 18th century Slovenian apiarist whose research and published studies laid the foundation for modern apiculture.
You can find a few links to resources on Janลกa and the history of apiculture in the Additional Reading section below, but the focus of this post is actually going to be an old poem that you can use in your own literary celebration of World Bee Day.
Titled โHow Doth the Little Busy Beeโ, the poem was written by the English writer and theologian Isaac Watts (1674โ1748), today best known for his numerous church hymns, many of which are still sung across the English-speaking world, and remain well-known globally.
Watts uses the example of the little busy bee as a model for human life. The poemโs moral lesson is that – with the bee as an example and symbol of a good, productive life – we should avoid being idle and lazy, and spend our time in books, or work, or healthful play instead.
The central idea of the poem echoes an English proverb that you may have heard before: โidle hands do the devilโs workโ, also expressed as โthe devil makes work for idle handsโ and similarly. I love how that poetโs emphasis is not simply on keeping ourselves busy with physical work or material productivity, but that we should pay just as must attention to our intellectual and spiritual endeavours.
How doth the little busy bee
Improve each shining hour,
And gather honey all the day
From every opening flower!
How skillfully she builds her cell!
How neat she spreads the wax!
And labours hard to store it well
With the sweet food she makes.
In works of labour or of skill,
I would be busy too:
For Satan finds some mischief still
For idle hands to do.
In books, or work, or healthful play,
Let my first years be passed,
That I may give for every day
Some good account at last.
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
Audio of the poem โHow Doth the Busy Little Beeโ
Pioneers of Slovenian Beekeping
World Bee Day – the official U.N. webpage
NOTES
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COVER PHOTO CREDIT
Dustin Humes via Unsplash
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