Gwen Harwood was a formal poet with a great gift for character.
Gwen Harwood
This poem is about one character whom she follows in various poems. A pianist, a trapped genius of the second rank.
The Flight of the Bumble Bee
Kröte plays for a fiddler scraping
flthat bee thing from his violin.
There's little prospect of escaping
flback to Green Room and his gin.
A piece concerned with flight--symbolic!
flhe murmurs pianissimo.
Somebody hisses "Alcoholic"
flaudibly from the nearest row.
That woman with the bust! That bumbling
flamateur with an insect heart!
Heaven preserve me from all fumbling
flspear-holders on the stage of Art.
Drunk, often. Alcolholic never!
flHere comes those octaves-and-a-third.
Madam I could play on for ever,
flthinks Kröte, playing his absurd
pantomime of a great musician
flwresting hard with his instrument.
The fiddler's nervous disposition
flrapidly throws him off the scent
of any flower the bee might visit--
flhe scrapes beyond the normal ear.
Has Kröte drowned him out? Or is it
fla sound that only bats can hear?
The woman with the bust claps brightly,
flnot sure that anything's amiss.
The fiddler bows, deciding rightly
flagainst an encore. Kröte's bliss
flowers in the Green Room, where restored to
flhis bottle, in the grateful pause
before the storm, he can afford to
flignore the honey of applause.
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