Browning's "Christmas Eve," lines 560-62. From: The Explicator | Date: June 22, 1995| Author: DiMassa, Michael V. | COPYRIGHT 1995 Heldref Publications. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan.  All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group.Copyright information

Robert Browning's ambiguous usage of the bee image in his poem, "Christmas eve," makes a reading rather complicated. By describing the crowd of worshippers inside the St. Peter's Basilica as a swarm conveys catholicism or universality, which the Catholic church claims. At the same time, by reducing the people to the size of small insects, it inversely conveys the immense size of the basilica. On the other hand, 'swarm' recalls Milton's image of the fallen angels in 'Paradise Lost.' The bee-im...