{
 "id": "james-mcintyre/the-apiary",
 "title": "The Apiary",
 "ordinal": null,
 "subtitle": null,
 "poet": "James McIntyre",
 "poet_slug": "james-mcintyre",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "Poems of James McIntyre",
 "book_slug": "poems-of-james-mcintyre",
 "book_kind": "volume",
 "sequence": 66,
 "container": null,
 "epigraph": null,
 "first_published": {
  "year": 1889,
  "venue": "Poems of James McIntyre (1889)",
  "note": "First located printing is this volume; an earlier periodical printing has not been established.",
  "uncertain": false,
  "sources": [
   "https://archive.org/details/cihm_11791"
  ]
 },
 "source": {
  "kind": "standard-ebooks",
  "repo": "standardebooks/james-mcintyre_poetry",
  "file": "poetry.xhtml",
  "upstream": [
   "https://archive.org/details/cihm_09542",
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/36068",
   "https://archive.org/details/cihm_11791"
  ],
  "rights": "public domain (SE dedication; underlying text pre-1931)"
 },
 "verification": {
  "level": "structural-only",
  "last_checked": "2026-08-20"
 },
 "stats": {
  "n_lines": 24,
  "n_stanzas": 6,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 41,
  "max_indent": 0
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "The Apiary is a bee village,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "From thence they fly bent on pillage,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Extracting honey from the flowers;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "They care not who doth own the bowers.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "They seize on garden or on field,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Wherever blossoms sweets do yield;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "’Mong garden flowers or fields of clover",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "They do roam about all over.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "For their own use they make the honey,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Though owners sell it oft for money.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The bees so skilful do design",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Their honey comes and they love sunshine.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "From flower to flower they fly on wing,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And each one armed with a sharp sting,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Determined all the sweets to sieze,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Those marauding honey bees.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "They live in a great commonwealth,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And they punish fraud or stealth;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "They busy toil from morn ’till ’een,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And they are loyal to their Queen.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "But bees, like men, they sometimes thrive",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "By robbing of their neighbors hive;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The weaker from their homes they drive,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "While stronger flourish and survive.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}