The Canticle of the Bees

"The Canticle of the Bees" and other charming Christmas poems can be found in this favorite book of ours. Ms. McGinley has taken fifteen medieval legends of the first Christmas and turned them into poems. "The original tales grew up in that era when wonders and miracles seemed very near at hand - when it seemed quite natural that all creation must have taken part in the Nativity."

The Canticle of the Bees

Bees in winter

Weather keep,

Rapt, a garden-haunted

Sleep,

Dream of summer,
Still as stone,
Save on Christmas Eve,
Alone,

When that honey-havened
People,
Roused by bells
From every steeple,

Wake and sing
With one accord
Alleluias
To the Lord.

"Praise Him,"
Sing the choiring bees,
"Lord of limes
and locust trees,

Him Who has
Dominion over
Fields of amaranthine
Clover,

"By Whose providence
We fare
Daily through
The throbbing air

"And return
In drowsy flight
From the pastures
Of delight,

"From the many-petaled
Rose,
Hiveward
When the shadows close."
So, at least,
The legend goes.

Visit them
When bells arrive.
Cup your ear
Against the hive.

You may hear them
Singing thus,
Small
but multitudinous:

"Alleluia,
Lord of all
Things that flutter,
Fly or crawl,

"Now Your Star
Has shone again,
Bless Your swarming Bees.
Amen."

Wondering, walk there.
Do not fear them.
But remember
As you near them,
Only the pure in heart 
Shall hear them.