In the name of the Bee –

In the name of the Bee –
And of the Butterfly –
And of the Breeze – Amen!
                                                                       - Fr 23 (1858)

* Included as part of J18 (Fr21)

Most people who have attended Christian services are familiar with this Trinitarian formula first recorded as uttered by Jesus (Matthew 28:16): "Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit". From this springs the notion of the Holy Trinity--a triple godhead but with three distinct manifestations. The formulation is not only used in baptism but in prayers, liturgies, and perhaps most familiarly uttered when making the sign of the cross.

Holy Pollination
from Fiskars.com

     Dickinson is utterly pagan here, establishing her church of nature not just with the 'aged Bee' who addressed the mourners in Fr 22, but re-imagining the Trinity in what was around her every day. It's a playful bit but clearly thought out: the Bee would represent the Father--the one who pollinates and gives life and knows every flower. The Butterfly, like the Son, is transfigured from the caterpillar and cocoon to rise into the air a beautiful and transcendent thing. And the Breeze, like the Holy Spirit, is ethereal, invisibly moving all that it touches.
     The alliteration and slant rhyme of Bee and Breeze unify the poem and the four anapests--two in the first line and one each in the subsequent ones move it along briskly. The spondee of the 'Amen!' at the end punctuates the poem with conviction. All in all, a delight!