Friday, July 13, 2012

Hornet's Nest


I have been keeping my eye on this nest that seems to be growing bigger at a steady rate.  I always have bad reactions when I get stung and it is making me a little nervous but thanks to a poem I learned when I was a little girl I won't be trying to get rid of the nest on my own.

The Hornets Nest

"When I was young," said cousin John
"At the old house that I came from.
A honeysuckle used to grow,
That climbed around the portico.

How sweetly I remembered well
Its yellow blossoms used to smell
And how one summer in its shade
Their great grey nests the hornets made.

Around the rooms they buzzing flew
And wandered all the garden through
With their dull drone and cruel stings
They seemed such idle spiteful things.

"To drive them off," I said one day.
"I'll tear that ugly nest away."
"NO, John," my mother said, "No, no!"
You must not think of doing so.
You foolish boy tis never best
To meddle with a hornets nest.

Her good advice away was thrown
The moment when I was alone
I climbed and hold of it I caught
To pull it down when quick as thought.

Out flew hornets great and small
And full of fury one and all
About my neck and face they clung
Nose, eyelids, ears, and mouth they stung.

I tried to beat them off in vain
And shrieked aloud in fright and pain.
The startled household hurried out
What could the outcry be about?

My burning hands and arms they swathed
With linen cloths and gently bathed
My swollen face and throbbing head
And laid me tenderly in bed.

And then my mother talked to me.
"You've been a naughty boy," said she.
I told you that it is not best,
To meddle with a hornet's nest.

9 comments:

  1. Those were the days - when schools used books full of poems and stories that gave students excellent advice. (Even the books in mainstream America used to contain such helpful stories - now, not so much.)
    Thank you for posting the hornet poem.
    Have a great weekend!

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  2. Love it! I have a cute little birdhouse hanging from one of my trees (mostly for decoration) and I went to move it to a different tree and lo and behold, it was full of wasps, or bees, or some stinging things! That's when I decided it looked good right where it was. :)

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  3. I've stopped putting up birdhouses because I'm too lazy to climb up there and clean them out. I've discovered the hummingbirds will build a new little abode each year, so hooray for hummys. Enjoyed your site.

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  4. I've stopped putting up birdhouses because I'm too lazy to climb up there and clean them out. I've discovered the hummingbirds will build a new little abode each year, so hooray for hummys. Enjoyed your site.

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  5. I have a decorative birdhouse with the same thing happening. They work fast! It's half cover in its papery shell and I've decided to leave it be. Last week I ran over a ground nest with my push mower. I was stung many times. Not a pleasant experience.

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  6. I am a bit different. I am very slow in destroying wasps nests because they are very slow to sting people and do so only as a last resort. Ihave had wasps nests right outsde my door, but if I just go my way they leave me alone.

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  7. Cute poem!

    I work on the "leave them alone and they should leave me alone" rule too. My Nan taught me to leave them be and once I listened to her I stopped getting stung. I even had a wasp come and investigate me and come so close I could feel the air from its wings on the lids of my tightly closed eyes, but I stayed still and after a while it just went away.

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  8. We used to have Hornets in France. They were vicious things and the neighbours used to tell us to go straight to a hospital if stung by them. Fortunately they never got near enough!

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  9. Wasps are annoying but Hornets are MEAN! They don't like it when little boys swing baseball bats and hit the trunk of the tree where they've made their home in the branches. They will fly out and sting the first moving body they see...and it wasn't the little boy with the bat, but the BIG boy who OWNED the bat, who was chasing the little boy who TOOK the bat... my poor brother :-( )

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Thank you so much for taking time to comment. I love hearing your thoughts.