The Bumblebee

By James Whitcomb Riley 1849–1916

You better not fool with a Bumblebee!—

Ef you don't think they can sting—you'll see!

They're lazy to look at, an' kind o' go

Buzzin' an' bummin' aroun' so slow,

An' ac' so slouchy an' all fagged out,

Danglin' their legs as they drone about

The hollyhawks 'at they can't climb in

'Ithout ist a-tumble-un out ag'in!

Wunst I watched one climb clean 'way

In a jimson-blossom, I did, one day,—

An' I ist grabbed it — an' nen let go—

An' "Ooh-ooh! Honey! I told ye so!"

Says The Raggedy Man; an' he ist run

An' pullt out the stinger, an' don't laugh none,

An' says: "They has be'n folks, I guess,

'At thought I wuz predjudust, more er less,—

Yit I still muntain 'at a Bumblebee

Wears out his welcome too quick fer me!"

Biography

Known as “The Hoosier Poet” because of his birth in Indiana and poems celebrating the state, and as “The Children’s Poet” due to his appeal for young readers, James Whitcomb Riley was one of his day’s best-selling writers. Full of sentiment and traditional in form, his work features rustic subjects who speak in a homely, countrified dialect. When Riley died, Woodrow Wilson called him “a man who imparted joyful pleasure and a . . .

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