The Kingdom of the Bees: William Shakespeare

So work the honey-bees :

Creatures that, by a rule in Nature, teach

The art of order to a peopled kingdom

They have a king, and officers of sorts;

Where some, like magistrates, correct at home;

Others, like merchants, venture trade abroad;

Others, like soldiers, armed in their stings,

Make boot upon the Summer’s velvet buds;

Which pillage they with merry march bring home

To the tent-royal of their emperor;

Who, busied in his majesty, surveys

The singing masons building roofs of gold;

The civil citizens kneading-up the honey;

The poor mechanic porters crowding-in

Their heavy burdens at his narrow gate;

The sad-eyed justice, with his surly hum,

Delivering o’er to executors pale

The lazy yawning drone.

Summary: ‘The Kingdom of the Bees,’ is a marvelous creation of the greatest English poet named William Shakespeare. Here the poet gives a vivid description of the bees' kingdom in a lyrical form through which we came to know that the life of insect is not that simple the way we think. If we notice their living standard, we can see that they have an organized life. They also have some rules and laws. They also have to maintain discipline in order to run their life. In this poem, the poet observed that in the bee hives, there are different classes of bees engaged in diverse works such as magistrates bees who do the corrective work, merchant bees collects honey, soldier bees protect their hives and the king who observes the work of everyday including masons bees who build the hives. There are other working groups who do their job within due diligence. The lives of bees are organized in an ordered way. They naturally learnt the art of order. Though they are insects, they have the capability to teach the human the art of order.