The Arrival of the Bee Box Quizzes

The Arrival of the Bee Box Quiz

1 Who is the poem's speaker?

A writer comparing her words to swarming bees

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

Somebody who has just ordered a box full of bees

A bee who lives on a farm
2 Broadly speaking, what did bees symbolize in seventeenth-century Europe?

Creativity and individuality

Hard work and piety

Poverty and monasticism

Noisiness and immorality
3 What is the meaning of the word "colonnade"?

A row of columns

A military parade

A dessert made of fruit

A colonial outpost
4 Which writer did NOT use bees as a symbol or allegory?

John Mandeville

John Greenleaf Whittier

Mary Leapor

Fanny Burney
5 What are the bees probably NOT intended to symbolize in this poem?

Sexual aggression

Climate change

The speaker's thoughts

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

A field of flowers

An industrial honey farm

A school

The speaker's home
7 Which collection was this poem a part of?

The Bell Jar

Ariel

The Colossus

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

It is the only part that does not rhyme

It is spoken by a different speaker

It is written in a different meter

It is only one line long
9 Fill in the blank: I wonder if they would forget me/If I just undid the locks and stood back and _______"

closed my eyes

turned into a tree

died

ran away
10 Which is an example of irony?

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

The amount of noise that the bees make

The speaker's feeling of temptation despite the danger of the bees

The speaker's comparison of herself to God
11 Fill in the blank: It is the noise that _____ me most of all,

distracts

ensnares

intrigues

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

A tent

A baby

A coffin

A chair
13 How many stanzas are in the poem?

3

7

5

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

The Old West

Revolutionary America

Ancient Rome

Victorian Britain
15 What is the meaning of the word "laburnum"?

A diploma

A New England company

A type of tree

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

Sunset

Dinner

Hillside

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

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

The bees' power comes from their cleanliness and cooperativeness

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

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

Anapestic tetrameter

Iambic pentameter

Dactylic pentameter

It has no set meter
19 What best describes the poem's conflict?

The beekeeper's conflict with the industrialist

The speaker's decision about whether to free the bees

The bee's decision about whether to sting the human

The speaker's fight against the queen bee
20 What best describes the speaker's feelings about the bees?

intimacy and love

alternating fascination and fear

self-effacing admiration

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

Tercets

Sestets

The stanzas are unmatched

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

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

The poem subtly equates the speaker's fear of the bees with women's fear of violence or subjugation
23 Which mythological figure is alluded to in the poem?

Narcissus

Hercules

Persephone

Daphne
24 What do the trees most closely symbolize?

Escape from conflict

The speaker's ambivalence

The abundance of nature

Strength
25 Which of the following is a metaphor?

"They can die, I can feed them nothing"

"There is only a little grid, no exit"

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

"In my moon suit and funeral veil"

The Arrival of the Bee Box Questions and Answers

The Question and Answer section for The Arrival of the Bee Box is a great resource to ask questions, find answers, and discuss the novel.

Ask Your Own Question

Study Guide for The Arrival of the Bee Box

The Arrival of the Bee Box study guide contains a biography of Sylvia Plath, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis.

Read the Study Guide for The Arrival of the Bee Box…