The Mower: Sylvia Lynd

The rooks travelled home,

The milch cows went lowing,

And down in the meadow

An old man was mowing.

His shirt rank with sweat,

His neck stained with grime;

But he moved like the cadence

And sweetness of rhyme.

He moved like the heavy-winged

Rooks, the slow cows,

He moved like the vane

On the roof of the house.

The foam of the daisies

Was spread like a sea,

The spikes of red sorrel

Came up past his knee.

The sorrel, the clover,

The buttercups gold-

A man that was dirty

And twisted and old-

But again and again

Like an eddy he was,

He moved like the wind

In his own tasseled grass.

Summary: ‘The Mower’ is a beautiful poem by Sylvia Lynd. In this poem, the poet says about a mower who is a hard-working person. He works from dawn to dusk without any break or rest. She compares the movement of a mower with the vane of a house. Every day the mower works on, his shirt ranks with sweat, his neck get stained with grime but still he works on. The foam of the daisies spread as a sea and the spikes of red sorrel come up to his knee, he still works on. He becomes dirty but still he works on like an eddy. And the poet thinks that mowing is a good job. We should respect the job of the mower.

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.