We saw that you were watching us,

We felt you were our friend,

And as we, in a general way,

Come to a fearful end,

It suddenly occurred to us

That we would have a look

At what you said about us,

So we crawled upon your book.

We now have buzzed all over it,

And find that, as we feared,

Voracious Plants could tell us

How our friends have disappeared.

(I never trusted Drosera,

Since I went there with a friend,

And saw its horrid tentacles

Beginning all to bend.²

I flew away, but he was caught,

I saw him squeezed quite flat—

I don’t go any more to Plants

With habits such as that.)

We are very much obliged to you

For now of course we shan’t

Be taken in and done for

By any clever Plant.

But this has to be considered:

It isn’t much we need,

But if we daren’t go to any plant,

On what are we to feed?

We feel that you, in pointing out

The dangers that we run,

Have meant to do the kindest thing

To us that could be done.

Therefore, to your abode in Down,

With joyful buzz and hum,

From every quarter of the globe,

We Insects all will come.

Great plates of honey you will set

For us upon your lawn,

We’ll feast away & bless the day

That ever you were born!