[WARNING: This song contains antiquated racial stereotypes. It is presented here for historical and educational purposes only.]
From the musical “The Explorers”, 1901
Words by Bert Leston Taylor
Music by Walter H. Lewis
The sheet music:
Accompaniment by James Pitt-Payne:
Lyrics
- The busy bee of joyous June
Improves each shining hour
He dips his little honey spoon
In every yielding flower
He sips from yellow, sips from white
No chaliced sweet declines
It’s all the same in his sweet game
He draws no color lines
Refrain
For honey is sweet, sweet, wild or tame
Dark is sweeter, so dark folk claim
But honey, is honey, honey just the same
According to the busy bee of June
And Cupid is color blind, so they say
Doesn’t know white from black, or gray
For all we know to the contrary
Cupid might have been a little coon
- Oh! color’s but a fleeting show
For color comes and goes
The bee is not attracted by
The blush upon the rose
With busy little honey spoon
The honey cell he mines
From lip to lip he goes to sip
And draws no color lines