Where the bee sucks there [suck]1 I:
  In a cow-slip's [bell]2 I lie;
  There I couch when owls do cry.
  On a bat's back [I do]3 fly
  After [summer]4 merrily,
Merrily, merrily shall I live now
Under the blossom that hangs on the bough.

About the headline (FAQ)

View original text (without footnotes)
¹ Arne: "lurk"
² Arne: "bed"
³ Arne: "do I"
⁴ Arne: "sunset"

Text Authorship:

• by William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616), no title, appears in The Tempest, Act V, Scene 1 [author's text checked 1 time against a primary source]

Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):

• by Thomas Augustine Arne (1710 - 1778), "Where the bee sucks" [sung text checked 1 time]
• by Frederic Ayres (1876 - 1926), "Where the bee sucks", op. 3 (Three Songs) no. 2 [sung text checked 1 time]
• by Gary Bachlund (b. 1947), "Where the Bee Sucks", 1989 [ counter-tenor and piano ] [sung text checked 1 time]
• by Ernst Bacon (1898 - 1990), "Where the bee sucks", c1940-46 [ soprano and piano ], from Four Songs for Soprano [sung text not yet checked]
• by John Banister (c1625 - 1679), "Where the bee sucks" [sung text not yet checked]
• by Granville Ransome Bantock, Sir (1868 - 1946), "Where the bee sucks", 1934 [ voice and piano ], from Six Shakespeare Songs, no. 1 [sung text not yet checked]
• by Lukas Foss (b. 1922), "Where the bee sucks", published 1951 [sung text checked 1 time]
• by Trevor Hold (1939 - 2004), "Where the bee sucks", 1976 [ soprano or tenor and piano ], from Something Rich and Strange, no. 3 [sung text not yet checked]
• by Mervyn, Lord Horder, the Second Baron of Ashford (1910 - 1998), "Where the bee sucks" [ duet for soprano and baritone with piano ], from Four Shakespeare Duets, no. 3 [sung text not yet checked]
• by John Jeffreys (1927 - 2010), "Under the blossom" [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
• by Robert Johnson (c1583 - 1633), "Where the bee sucks" [sung text not yet checked]
• by Frank Martin (1890 - 1974), "Where the bee sucks there suck I", 1950, published 1968, first performed 1953 [ SATB chorus a cappella ], from Songs of Ariel from Shakespeare's Tempest, no. 5 [sung text not yet checked]
• by Ernest John Moeran (1894 - 1950), "Where the bee sucks", R. 76 no. 2 (1940), published 1940 [ high voice or medium voice and piano ], from Four Shakespeare Songs, no. 2 [sung text checked 1 time]
• by Peter Anthony Monk , "Where the bee sucks", 1982, published 1982, first performed 1982 [ SSAA chorus a cappella ], from Ariel's Five Little Songs [sung text not yet checked]
• by Roger Quilter (1877 - 1953), "Where the bee sucks" [ voice and piano ], lost [sung text not yet checked]
• by Michael Tippett (1905 - 1998), "Where the bee sucks", from Songs for Ariel, no. 3 [sung text checked 1 time]

Settings in other languages, adaptations, or excerpts:

• Also set in French (Français), a translation by Guy de Pourtalès (1881 - 1941) ; composed by Arthur Honegger.
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• Also set in French (Français), a translation by Maurice Bouchor (1855 - 1929) ; composed by Ernest Amédée Chausson.
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• Also set in German (Deutsch), a translation by August Wilhelm Schlegel (1767 - 1845) ; composed by Wilhelm Killmayer.
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• Also set in Spanish (Español), adapted by Guillermo Macpherson (1824 - 1898) , no title ; composed by Rocío Sanz Quirós.
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• Also set in Swedish (Svenska), a translation by Anonymous/Unidentified Artist ; composed by Gösta Nystroem.
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Other available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):

• FIN Finnish (Suomi) (Paavo Cajander)
• FRE French (Français) (François-Victor Hugo) , no title

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 7
Word count: 44