The Arrival of the Bee Box Sylvia Plath CLICK HERE R.Shannon

Tribute to Sylvia Plath Sylvia Plath & Ted Hughes

The Arrival of the Bee Box I ordered this, clean wood box Square as a chair and almost too heavy to lift. I would say it was the coffin of a midget Or a square baby Were there not such a din in it. The box is locked, it is dangerous. I have to live with it overnight And I can't keep away from it. There are no windows, so I can't see what is in there. There is only a little grid, no exit. I put my eye to the grid. It is dark, dark, With the swarmy feeling of African hands Minute and shrunk for export, Black on black, angrily clambering. How can I let them out? It is the noise that appalls me most of all, The unintelligible syllables. It is like a Roman mob, Small, taken one by one, but my god, together! I lay my ear to furious Latin. I am not a Caesar. I have simply ordered a box of maniacs. They can be sent back. They can die, I need feed them nothing, I am the owner. I wonder how hungry they are. I wonder if they would forget me If I just undid the locks and stood back and turned into a tree. There is the laburnum, its blond colonnades, And the petticoats of the cherry. They might ignore me immediately In my moon suit and funeral veil. I am no source of honey So why should they turn on me? Tomorrow I will be sweet God, I will set them free. The box is only temporary.

Stanza 1 & 2 In this poem, Plath has just received a ‘clean wood box’ full of bees. Tomorrow she will release the bees into the hive she has prepared for them. The box has the following features: It is square in shape ‘square as a chair’. It is heavy ‘almost too heavy to lift’. It is ‘locked’ and its only opening in the box is a small grid for ventilation ‘There are no windows … no exit’. Plath reacts to the box with a feeling of dread and horror. She thinks of it as ‘dangerous’ but yet she expresses a desire to be in control. She feels she has to deal with a dangerous situation but she associates the box with death, referring to it as a ‘coffin’. At first she is not in control. She panics and may be regretful that she purchased the box of bees in the first place.

Stanza 1 & 2 The bee box both frightens and attracts Plath. She stares in at the bees through a little wire grid. The box is ‘locked’ because its contents are ‘dangerous’. Yet Plath ‘can’t keep away from it’. She examines the box and considers opening it. But she is faced with the threat that what is inside may injure her. Yet, she feels she has to 'to live with it overnight'. She lays her ear on its surface and listens to the bees buzzing within. Her reaction to this box is contradictory because it seems to repulse her and attract her at the same time.

Stanza 3 In the third stanza, as Plath looks through the grille, the interior is ‘dark, dark’ and she can just about make out the bees ‘clambering’ around within it. She regards the bees as angry slaves that seek release and revenge: ‘Black on black, angrily clambering’. She imagines the bees are like army divisions of blackness that she associates with ‘the swarmy feeling of African hands’. She is in a state of alarm. They look like the tiny shrunken hands of dead Africans.

Stanza’s 4 & 5 In the fourth stanza, the buzzing noise puts her off releasing the bees. She finds this noise even more horrifying and upsetting than their appearance ‘It is the noise that appals me most of all’. She fears their bee language and now regards them as an aggressive Roman mob. She compares their buzzing to a strange language full of ‘unintelligible syllables’. Her exclamation, 'small, taken one by one, but my god together!' reveals a fear of being attacked by these 'minute' [tiny] creatures. The swarm terrifies her and she thinks of them as ‘a box of maniacs’. They ‘clamber’ angrily and the sound they make is ‘furious’.

Stanza’s 4 & 5 In the fifth stanza, she sidesteps the problem: ‘I am not a Caesar’. She means she is not all-powerful. She also means that she doesn’t have to understand the bees’ ‘unintelligible syllables’, which she would have to if she were Caesar listening to a ‘Roman mob’. She compares the bees to a rioting crowd in ancient Roman Times. She fears that once released the bees may turn on her and overwhelm her ‘How can I let them out?. It took a powerful ruler like Caesar to master the mobs of Rome in the say way that it would take a skilful and confident beekeeper to control the bees once released. She feels that she does not possess the necessary qualities to tame or control this raging swarm ‘I am not a Caesar’. As her nerves steady, she realises she can starve them to death and ignore them: ‘They can die, I need feed them nothing’. Maniacs are not as bullying as a Roman mob. They are far less threatening than an army of vengeful African slaves. Plath’s imagery shows that her state of panic is gradually reducing. At the end of the fifth stanza, Plath begins to feel powerful again, in a negative sense: ‘I am the owner.’

Stanza’s 6 & 7 In the sixth stanza Plath feels different. She imagines the bees are ‘hungry’ rather than ‘angrily clambering’. Now she can see herself undoing the locks. She realises that there is little chance of this attack occurring ‘I am no source of honey/So why should they turn on me?’. She realises the bees will fly to where they will get honey and leave her alone. They will ignore her, especially if she stands there like a tree. They will fly towards flowering plants: ‘There is the laburnum, its blond colonnades, and the petticoats of the cherry’.

Stanza’s 6 & 7 In the seventh stanza, Plath accepts her role as beekeeper. She realises she will wear her protective beekeeper’s ‘suit’ and ‘veil’. She seems to be coming to terms with her task. She decides she will release the bees, to allow them to find a source of honey By freeing the bees she will be a ‘sweet God’ or a kind person. By being ‘sweet’, she resembles the honey that the bees are after. Will her sweetness make her attractive to the bees after-all? This is a play on words known as a pun. Through this pun, she reveals that because she has a desire to release the bees she is now sweet. This sweetness or kindness puts her in danger of a bee attack. At the same time she expects that the bees will look for flowers rather than carry out such an attack. In the final single line, she states that the box is ‘temporary’ because she will release the bees in the morning. She concludes that the bees will not stay locked in the box.

THEMES Mental Anguish Order and Chaos Poetic inspiration Nature: life and death.