The Bee as a Symbol of Nature's Innocence in Emerson's "The Humble-Bee" and Whittier's "Telling the Bees" FOUR PAGES. Junior level American Poetry class.

The Bee as a Symbol of Nature's Innocence in Emerson's "The Humble-Bee" and Whittier's "Telling the Bees" The English custom of telling the bees when there was a death in the family, and of covering the hives with black cloth to prevent them from leaving is what Whittier's poem, "Telling the Bees" refers to. This same custom, or at least the same attitude towards this creature no doubt inspired Emerson's poem, "The Humble-Bee." While Whittier's …

…They are innocent because though they experience death they are ignorant of the processes of nature that they are a part of. The mourning process raises the reality of the inevitability of death for both poets, and both Emerson and Whittier observe the eternal cycle of nature as the reason death has to occur while treating the bees, which are a part of nature, as symbols of its immunity to the pain of human experience.