After reading, “singing of you, my honey bunch” the song I Can’t Help Myself came to mind instantly given the lyrics, “Sugar pie, honey bunch, You know that I love you, I can’t help myself, I love you and nobody else.” The word honeybunch made the connection, but as I read the poem further, more lines jumped out that mirrored the lyrics. For example, he writes, “and I’d even let you burn my soul, and my one eye, sweetest thing of all to me” and the song sings, “Girl it starts to flame (Burning in my heart, tearing it all apart).” Like much love burning the soul is shared between both ancient poetry and music of the last century. Lastly, Theocritus is pleading, “Come out, Galatea, and coming out, forget, as I do now in sitting here, to go back home,” while the Four Tops are singing, “You know that I’m waiting for you (Waiting for you).” I see the similarity being that the person is outside the house, waiting for the person to come back home with them.
Where these works differ though is that Theocritus talks about his life, and what he is able to offer her, whereas the Four Tops don’t focus on their outside life, they focus only on professing how much they love their Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch.
(Theocritus 11)
“singing of you, my honeybunch, and me
often in the dead of night. And I’m rearing eleven fawns for you”
“and I’d even let you burn my soul
and my one eye, sweetest thing of all to me”
“Come out, Galatea, and coming out, forget,
as I do now in sitting here, to go back home.”