The Arrival of the Bee Box Literary Elements

The speaker of this poem is a woman who has just bought a box of bees.

Free verse, in seven stanzas of varied length

The poem uses a great deal of metaphor and simile. The speaker uses metaphor to refer to her beekeeping clothes as a "moon suit and funeral veil" and to refer to trees as having "colonnades" and "petticoats." She uses simile to compare her box of bees to a chair, a coffin, and a baby, and to compare the sound of bees to that of a "Roman mob."

Plath uses assonant "O" sounds in the phrase "the box is locked" and "U" sounds in the phrase "moon suit and funeral veil." However, this poem avoids alliteration.

The box of bees is dangerous and frightening. But, ironically, the speaker finds herself drawn to it. Also ironic is the fact that the speaker finds her power over the bees to be a source of vulnerability, since their attention is dangerous.

Confessional poetry

The poem appears to take place in the speaker's home, where she has ordered a box of bees

The poem's tone is inquisitive, cautious, and unsettled.

The protagonist is the speaker and the bees are antagonists.

The major conflict of the poem is the speaker's relationship with the bees and the power dynamics between them, in particular her decision as to whether or not she should or wants to free them.

The climax of the poem is when the speaker decides to free her bees.

The speaker's observation that the box has "no exit" foreshadows her realization that she holds power over her bees.

The statements "I am not a caesar" and "I am no source of honey" understate the extent to which these attributes do not apply to the speaker: she lives centuries after Caesar, and she is not a source of honey or a bee at all.

Plath alludes to the transatlantic slave trade, Ancient Roman emperors, and the myth of Daphne and Apollo.

Plath uses "the box" as synecdoche for the bees inside, saying "the box is dangerous."

Plath gives the bees human qualities; for example, she questions whether they would "turn" on her.

The speaker compares herself to God in order to exaggerate her power over the bees.

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