Classic and Contemporary Poetry
THE SPIDER AND THE BEE, by EDWARD MOORE (1712-1757) Poet's Biography First Line: The nymph who walks the public streets Last Line: By folly your own schemes undo.' Subject(s): Beauty; Bees; Charm; Desire; Insects; Spiders; Women; Beekeeping; Bugs | ||||||||
THE nymph who walks the public streets, And sets her cap at all she meets, May catch the fool who turns to stare; But men of sense avoid the snare. As on the margin of the flood With silken line my Lydia stood, I smil'd to see the pains you took To cover o'er the fraudful hook. Along the forests as we stray'd You saw the boy his lime-twigs spread; Guess'd you the reason of his fear? Lest, heedless, we approach too near; For as behind the bush we lay The linnet flutter'd on the spray, Needs there such caution to delude The scaly fry and feather'd brood? And think you with inferior art To captivate the human heart? The maid who modestly conceals Her beauties, while she hides, reveals; Give but a glimpse, and fancy draws Whate'er the Grecian Venus was. From Eve's first fig-leaf to brocade, All dress was meant for fancy's aid, Which evermore delighted dwells On what the bashful nymph conceals. When Cælia struts in man's attire, She shows too much to raise desire; But from the hoop's bewitching round Her very shoe has power to wound. The roving eye, the bosom bare, The forward laugh, the wanton air, May catch the fop; for gudgeons strike At the bare hook and bait alike, While salmon play regardless by, Till art like nature forms the fly. Beneath a peasant's homely thatch A Spider long had held her watch; From morn to night, with restless care, She spun her web and wove her snare. Within the limits of her reign Lay many a heedless captive slain, Or fluttering, struggled in the toils To burst the chains and shun her wiles. A straying Bee, that perch'd hard by, Beheld her with disdainful eye, And thus began: 'Mean Thing! give o'er, And lay thy slender threads no more; A thoughtless fly or two, at most, Is all the conquest thou canst boast; For Bees of sense thy arts evade, We see so plain the nets are laid. 'The guady tulip that displays Her spreading foliage to the gaze, That points her charms at all she sees, And yields to every wanton breeze, Attracts not me: where blushing grows, Guarded with thorns, the modest rose, Enamour'd round and round I fly, Or on her fragrant bosom lie; Reluctant she my ardour meets, And bashful renders up her sweets. 'To wiser heads attention lend, And learn this lesson from a friend; She who with modesty retires Adds fuel to her lover's fires, While such incautious jilts as you By folly your own schemes undo.' | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE EXHAUSTED BUG; FOR MY FATHER by ROBERT BLY PLASTIC BEATITUDE by LAURE-ANNE BOSSELAAR BEETLE LIGHT; FOR DANIEL HILLEN by MADELINE DEFREES CLEMATIS MONTANA by MADELINE DEFREES THOMAS MERTON AND THE WINTER MARSH by NORMAN DUBIE AS PHILLIS THE GAY by EDWARD MOORE (1712-1757) BE STILL, O YE WINDS! by EDWARD MOORE (1712-1757) ELEGY, WRITTEN AMONG THE RUINS OF A NOBLEMAN'S SEAT IN CORNWALL by EDWARD MOORE (1712-1757) |
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