The Arrival of the Bee Box Quizzes

The Arrival of the Bee Box Quiz

1 Who is the poem's speaker?

A bee who lives on a farm

Somebody who has just ordered a box full of bees

A grieving husband participating in the custom of "telling the bees"

A writer comparing her words to swarming bees
2 Broadly speaking, what did bees symbolize in seventeenth-century Europe?

Noisiness and immorality

Poverty and monasticism

Creativity and individuality

Hard work and piety
3 What is the meaning of the word "colonnade"?

A colonial outpost

A dessert made of fruit

A row of columns

A military parade
4 Which writer did NOT use bees as a symbol or allegory?

John Greenleaf Whittier

John Mandeville

Fanny Burney

Mary Leapor
5 What are the bees probably NOT intended to symbolize in this poem?

Climate change

Sexual aggression

The speaker's thoughts

Familial demands on women
6 Where does the poem most likely take place?

A school

The speaker's home

An industrial honey farm

A field of flowers
7 Which collection was this poem a part of?

Double Exposure

The Colossus

The Bell Jar

Ariel
8 How does the work's final stanza most clearly differ from the others?

It is only one line long

It is the only part that does not rhyme

It is spoken by a different speaker

It is written in a different meter
9 Fill in the blank: I wonder if they would forget me/If I just undid the locks and stood back and _______"

died

closed my eyes

turned into a tree

ran away
10 Which is an example of irony?

The amount of noise that the bees make

The speaker's comparison of herself to God

The speaker's ability to keep her bees alive or let them die

The speaker's feeling of temptation despite the danger of the bees
11 Fill in the blank: It is the noise that _____ me most of all,

distracts

intrigues

ensnares

appalls
12 What does the speaker NOT compare the box to?

A baby

A coffin

A tent

A chair
13 How many stanzas are in the poem?

5

7

3

9
14 The speaker compares the bees to a mob from where?

The Old West

Revolutionary America

Victorian Britain

Ancient Rome
15 What is the meaning of the word "laburnum"?

A New England company

A diploma

A type of tree

A kitchen counter
16 What is the meaning of the word "din"?

Hillside

Sunset

Noise

Dinner
17 Which best describes the poem's portrayal of power?

The speaker struggles for power, but is no match for nature

The bees' power comes from their cleanliness and cooperativeness

The speaker struggles to decide whether it is she or the bees who holds disproportionate power

The speaker loses her power when she buys the bees and gives up her job
18 What is the poem's meter?

Iambic pentameter

It has no set meter

Dactylic pentameter

Anapestic tetrameter
19 What best describes the poem's conflict?

The speaker's decision about whether to free the bees

The beekeeper's conflict with the industrialist

The speaker's fight against the queen bee

The bee's decision about whether to sting the human
20 What best describes the speaker's feelings about the bees?

self-effacing admiration

intimacy and love

alternating fascination and fear

maddening irritation
21 What type of stanzas appear in the poem?

Couplets

The stanzas are unmatched

Tercets

Sestets
22 How is the theme of femininity discussed in the poem?

The poem subtly equates the speaker's fear of the bees with women's fear of violence or subjugation

The speaker's desire to engage with insects hints at a need to escape human gender norms

The queen bee represents the feminists of the twentieth century

The bees' collaboration suggests that only collaboration between women will better their lot
23 Which mythological figure is alluded to in the poem?

Hercules

Daphne

Narcissus

Persephone
24 What do the trees most closely symbolize?

The speaker's ambivalence

The abundance of nature

Escape from conflict

Strength
25 Which of the following is a metaphor?

"There is only a little grid, no exit"

"They can die, I can feed them nothing"

"Square as a chair and almost too heavy to lift"

"In my moon suit and funeral veil"

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