Explain the use of metaphor throughout the poem The Bees'.
Answers
The Arrival Of The Bee Box is one of five poems Sylvia Plath wrote from October 3rd to October 10th, 1962, following the traumatic break up with husband Ted Hughes, fellow poet and father of her two children.
They had been living in a rural cottage in Devon, south west England, from September 1961. During this time they both took up beekeeping as a hobby, joining a local group to learn the ins and outs.
Sylvia Plath had a particular interest in bees. Her father Otto, as an entomologist, studied bumble bees in his native Germany. He wrote an authoritative book about them, Bumblebees and Their Ways, published in 1934.
When he died prematurely in 1940, Sylvia Plath, aged 8, never quite got over it. Later on she would write powerful poems about her 'Daddy', attempting to express the deep-seated emotions she experienced as a child.
- So, whilst The Arrival Of The Bee Box is ostensibly about the reality of keeping bees, the poem acts as an extended metaphor for the poet's emotional and creative energies. What is inside the box is dangerous, the speaker desires control but is in an unpredictable, shifting environment.
- Whilst the basic theme is a search for control of the creative female self there are elements within the poem relating to her father Otto Plank, her husband Ted Hughes and society generally.
- There are dream-like scenes, shifts of perspective, human figures. The 'African hands' relate to freedom, anger and control, as does reference to the 'Roman mob'.
- Questions go unanswered, creating mystery and fear.
- The poem is set in the present but hints strongly at what will happen in the future. Shifts in time and space reflect a surreal quality.