MEMORY OF THE BEE.
Hark! the bee winds her small but mellow horn,
Blithe to salute the sunny smile of morn,
O’er thymy downs she bends her busy course,
And many a stream allures her to its source.
’Tis noon, ’tis night. That eye so finely wrought,
Beyond the reach of sense, the soar of thought,
Now vainly asks the scenes she left behind,
Its orb so full, its vision so confined!
Who guides the patient pilgrim to her cell?
Who bids her soul with conscious triumph swell?
With conscious truth retrace the mazy clue
Of varied scents, that charm’d her as she flew?
Hail, memory, hail! thy universal reign
Guards the least link of being’s glorious chain.
Samuel Rogers.