Bee limericks

There's not much bee news on the go this week, so I thought I'd ferret out a few bee Limericks. There is a nice selection on grahamlester.com. Here are two from famous people. Beekeepers will not be surprised to learn that both refer to stings.

There was an old man in a tree
Who was horribly bored by a bee
When they said, “Does it buzz?”
He replied, “Yes, it does!
It's a regular brute of a bee!”
Edward Lear

There was an old man of St Bees
Who was horribly stung by a wasp
When they said, “does it hurt?”
He replied, “no, it doesn’t –
It’s a good job it wasn’t a hornet”.
WS Gilbert (after Lear)

Here's another, collected by James Bryant:

Concerning the bees and the flowers
In the fields and the gardens and bowers,
You will note at a glance
That their ways of romance
Haven't any resemblance to ours.

James has some really good ribald ones on his site, too. I especially like the one about the young man from Aberystwyth.