Pigmy seraphs—gone astray—

Pigmy seraphs—gone astray—

Velvet people from Vevay—

Belles from some lost summer day—

Bees exclusive Coterie—

Paris could not lay the fold

Belted down with Emerald—

Venice could not show a check

Of a tint so lustrous meek—

Never such an ambuscade

As of briar and leaf displayed

For my little damask maid—

I had rather wear her grace

Than an Earl's distinguished face—

I had rather dwell like her

Than be "Duke of Exeter"—

Royalty enough for me

To subdue the Bumblebee.

                                               - F96 (1859)  138

The poem starts out with a charming sketch of bumblebees: “Pigmy seraphs” – little angels who wandered into this world and into the garden rather than stay in their heavenly abode; they are also the velvet-cloaked fine folk from Lake Geneva, and a group of lovely girls drifting about the garden on a sudden day. The garden with its damask roses is a fit place for their “exclusive Coterie.”

And like a receiving princess, the rose reclines in a gown “Belted” by beautiful green sepals, the color more “lustrous” and subtle than anything painted by the Venetian masters. Indeed, the profuse foliage and flowering of the rose is an “ambuscade.” This is as nice a tribute to bees and roses as I’ve ever seen. No wonder the poet would rather live amid her greenery than the palaces of a Duke.

Damask roses
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            But, ah! While Dukes and Earls can command the fealty of their subjects – indeed, order them to march to certain death in battle, the poet imagines that a truer mark of royalty than a title and castle would be to have a Bumblebee nestling in her lap, subdued by the delicious nectar – and thereby coaxed to take a little pollen along with it. It does sound like a better life, doesn’t it?

            Although written in three stanzas of unequal length, the poem is actually a series of rhymed couplets. The images are all so grand (angels, nobility, master painters, etc.) that lest the poem become too fawning, Dickinson carefully works in the words “meek” and “little.” It’s a “little damask maid” that because of the adoration of her subject bees is better off than the titled class of England.