The Arrival of the Bee Box

A poem in which Plath uses the metaphor of a bee box and its occupants to explore the nature of the human mind and the subconscious.

Taken from a sequence of poems based on her experiences of bee-keeping, The Arrival of The Box was written in 1962. It describes the arrival of the bee box and the poet’s response to it but can also be read as a symbolic text.

§ “I ordered this” indicates that the poet has requested this box, but the ambiguous phrase also suggests an attempt to impose order and control.
§ The metaphors to describe the box are both comic and disturbing, with the suggestion that there is something unnatural about the box. There are suggestions of entrapment and confinement, but also of danger.
§ Note the ambivalent tone - the speaker is both attracted to and repelled by the box. She is conscious of her fascination with its unknown and dangerous content, a fascination that is increased because of her inability to see inside. Perhaps Plath is suggesting that is one of the reasons for her fascination with the hidden workings of her mind.
§ The imagery becomes surreal, grotesque and startling with the comparison of the bees to African slaves in confinement. In literature and film, the journey to Africa (Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness and Apocalypse Now) has often represented a journey to the dark aspects of the psyche. There is a strong indication of their aggression.
§ The poet doubts her ability to cope with the dangerous potential of the bee, captured in her comparison of the bees with a Roman mob. However her tone becomes more confident – she realises she can choose to starve the bees, but this doesn’t fit with her concern for the bees.
§ The dilemma that faces the speaker is to choose between losing her identity and becoming a tree or remaining in her “moon-suit” and “funeral veil”. The tree is described in terms of an attractive, almost decorative female and the bee-keeping suit is described in terms of something associated with death and alienation. Perhaps Plath is suggesting that she could choose to relinquish her exploration of her psyche and become what society demanded of her (the 1950s perfect wife) or could alternatively remain as she was, aware of her subconscious impulses but refusing to explore them fully. Neither appears to be satisfactory, as both hint at that blankness which Plath feared so much.
§ The final line is striking – on paper it stands apart from the rest of the poem. Is the tone defiant? Does the poem end on a note of optimistic triumph? Is the poet suggesting that she will control her fears? By confronting her fears will she overcome them? The precise nature of the liberation she suggests is unclear?

Questions
1. Write a note on your favourite image in the poem.
2. Comment on the use of the word “ordered”.
3. “The box is only temporary”. What do you think the poet means by this?
4. “The box of bees becomes a metaphor for the fertile, swarming and potentially destructive chaos that the poet senses within herself” - Carole Ferrier.
What phrases suggest fertility? Potential destruction? Teeming abundance? List examples.