Poets have long found inspiration in bees. How long? At least 2,500 years, says James Lenfestey, who includes a translation of a bee poem by Sappho in “If Bees Are Few: A Hive of Bee Poems” (University of Minnesota Press). Virgil wrote about bees too, as did Rumi, Tennyson and Shakespeare, also included here. This time-traveling anthology goes back to when people observed bees but didn’t much worry about them, and comes forward to now, when we do (or should).

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