TRANSLATED BY MEDWIN AND CORRECTED BY SHELLEY. by Percy Bysshe Shelley: Summary, Meaning & Analysis
A speaker observes a bee nervously circling a rose and a moth flying dangerously into a candle flame.
The poem
[Published by Medwin, “Life of Shelley”, 1847, with Shelley’s corrections in ‘‘.] 1. Hast thou not seen, officious with delight, Move through the illumined air about the flower The Bee, that fears to drink its purple light, Lest danger lurk within that Rose’s bower? Hast thou not marked the moth’s enamoured flight _5 About the Taper’s flame at evening hour; ‘Till kindle in that monumental fire His sunflower wings their own funereal pyre? 2. My heart, its wishes trembling to unfold. Thus round the Rose and Taper hovering came, _10 ‘And Passion’s slave, Distrust, in ashes cold. Smothered awhile, but could not quench the flame,’— Till Love, that grows by disappointment bold, And Opportunity, had conquered Shame; And like the Bee and Moth, in act to close, _15 ‘I burned my wings, and settled on the Rose.’ ***
A speaker observes a bee nervously circling a rose and a moth flying dangerously into a candle flame. He then confesses that his own heart acted similarly, hovering anxiously around love until desire and opportunity triumphed over shame, leading him to give in—burning himself in the process. This brief, sincere admission captures the dual nature of falling in love, which can feel both perilous and alluring. The bee and moth serve not just as beautiful metaphors; they're warnings that the speaker is aware of but chooses to disregard.
Line-by-line
Hast thou not seen, officious with delight, / Move through the illumined air about the flower
My heart, its wishes trembling to unfold. / Thus round the Rose and Taper hovering came,
Tone & mood
The tone is both regretful and personal — the speaker is sharing something he knows might seem silly, but he isn’t sorry about it. Beneath this self-awareness lies a subtle excitement, like someone who knowingly stepped into a fire and found it worthwhile. The formal octave structure helps manage the emotion, making the final couplet's confession hit even harder.
Symbols & metaphors
- The Rose — The rose embodies desire—it's beautiful, possibly dangerous, and worth the risk. The bee is wary of the poison within, but the speaker concludes the poem by *settling* on it. It symbolizes the beloved and love itself, which attracts you even in the face of caution.
- The Taper (candle flame) — The candle represents the destructive side of passion—it not only draws in but also devastates. The moth's fiery demise serves as the poem's most haunting image, linking directly to the speaker's revelation that he *burned his wings*. In this context, love is more than just warmth; it embodies destruction.
- The Bee — The bee symbolizes a careful longing — it circles, hesitates, desires, yet holds back in fear. This reflects the speaker's initial emotional state, where distrust and shame prevented him from fully embracing love.
- The Moth — The moth symbolizes the lover who cannot help but pursue love despite understanding the risks involved. Its *funereal pyre* of wings serves as the poem's most striking image of self-destruction driven by desire, and it is the figure that the speaker ultimately relates to the most.
- Burned wings — Burning one's wings is the poem's main paradox: it represents both loss and achievement. The speaker sacrifices something — maybe caution, self-protection, or even pride — yet at the same time, he *settles*, implying a sense of rest and contentment. Love demands a price, but it also leads you to a destination.
Historical context
This poem is a translation initially done by Thomas Medwin—who was both Shelley's cousin and a close friend—and later revised by Shelley himself. Medwin published it in his 1847 *Life of Shelley*, highlighting Shelley's corrections in the text. The original source is a Spanish or Italian lyric from the emblem-poem tradition, a style that was popular during the Renaissance and Baroque periods, using natural images like bees, moths, flames, and roses to convey moral or emotional lessons. Shelley had a deep knowledge of Italian and Spanish literature and engaged in translation throughout his career. This poem belongs to a long-standing tradition of *carpe diem* and love-risk poetry, but Shelley's revisions elevate it to a level of psychological depth that the original emblem convention typically didn’t capture. Written during the Romantic period, when Shelley was creating his most significant lyrical works, the poem showcases his typical themes of desire, danger, and the price of emotional surrender.
FAQ
It's a love confession hidden within a nature observation. The speaker sees a bee pause near a rose and a moth dive into a candle flame, then reveals that his own heart acted similarly — lingering near love but held back by fear and shame, until desire took over. The final line — *I burned my wings, and settled on the Rose* — delivers the impact: he faced pain, but he made it to love.
It began as a translation by Thomas Medwin, who was Shelley's cousin, from an original text in Spanish or Italian. Shelley later corrected and revised the translation, and Medwin published it in his 1847 biography, noting Shelley's changes. This makes it a collaborative effort, but since Shelley influenced the final wording, it is attributed to him.
*Officious* here refers to being busily attentive or eagerly fussy — quite different from the modern interpretation of being annoyingly bossy. The bee is portrayed as nearly over-eager in its joy, flitting around the flower with nervous energy. It reflects the anxious nature of desire, which craves something but continually discovers reasons to hesitate.
A *pyre* is the fire used to cremate a body during a funeral. When the poem refers to the moth's burning wings as its own *funereal pyre*, it suggests that the moth's passion ultimately leads to its demise — it holds its own destruction within. This stark image effectively captures the idea of desire being self-destructive.
The speaker suggests that distrust — that hesitation to commit and the fear of getting hurt — actually stems from passion. You only feel distrust because you care enough to be afraid. Thus, distrust is a *slave* to passion rather than being its opposite. This is a keen psychological insight: the more you desire something, the greater your fear of losing it.
The poem consists of two octaves, each containing eight lines and maintaining a consistent rhyme scheme. In the first stanza, the bee and moth are depicted as parallel images. The second stanza shifts focus inward, connecting those images to the speaker's emotional journey, and concludes with a rhyming couplet that ties both themes together. It aligns with the emblem-poem tradition, where a natural image is presented and then interpreted as a moral or emotional lesson.
It's more compressed and vivid than Shelley's lengthy lyric poems like *Ode to the West Wind* or *Adonais*, partly because it's a translation rather than a fresh creation. However, the psychological accuracy — identifying *Distrust*, *Passion*, *Shame*, and *Opportunity* as almost allegorical forces — aligns closely with his style. Shelley frequently portrayed emotional states as active forces instead of merely passive feelings.
It's the poem's central paradox. *Burning your wings* implies damage, loss, and pain — the price of getting too close to something risky. But *settling on the Rose* feels peaceful, almost restful. The speaker conveys: yes, love hurt me, but I went for it anyway, and I found myself exactly where I wanted to be. The two halves of the line maintain the tension without resolving it — you can interpret it as triumph, tragedy, or a blend of both.