The Arrival of the Bee Box Quizzes

The Arrival of the Bee Box Quiz

1 Who is the poem's speaker?

Somebody who has just ordered a box full of bees

A writer comparing her words to swarming bees

A bee who lives on a farm

A grieving husband participating in the custom of "telling the bees"
2 Broadly speaking, what did bees symbolize in seventeenth-century Europe?

Poverty and monasticism

Noisiness and immorality

Hard work and piety

Creativity and individuality
3 What is the meaning of the word "colonnade"?

A dessert made of fruit

A military parade

A colonial outpost

A row of columns
4 Which writer did NOT use bees as a symbol or allegory?

John Greenleaf Whittier

Mary Leapor

Fanny Burney

John Mandeville
5 What are the bees probably NOT intended to symbolize in this poem?

Climate change

The speaker's thoughts

Familial demands on women

Sexual aggression
6 Where does the poem most likely take place?

A school

An industrial honey farm

The speaker's home

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

Ariel

The Bell Jar

The Colossus

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

It is spoken by a different speaker

It is written in a different meter

It is the only part that does not rhyme

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

ran away

turned into a tree

died
10 Which is an example of irony?

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

The speaker's comparison of herself to God

The amount of noise that the bees make
11 Fill in the blank: It is the noise that _____ me most of all,

appalls

intrigues

ensnares

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

A tent

A coffin

A chair

A baby
13 How many stanzas are in the poem?

9

3

5

7
14 The speaker compares the bees to a mob from where?

Revolutionary America

The Old West

Victorian Britain

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

A type of tree

A diploma

A New England company

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

Dinner

Hillside

Sunset

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

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

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
18 What is the poem's meter?

Iambic pentameter

Anapestic tetrameter

It has no set meter

Dactylic pentameter
19 What best describes the poem's conflict?

The bee's decision about whether to sting the human

The speaker's decision about whether to free the bees

The speaker's fight against the queen bee

The beekeeper's conflict with the industrialist
20 What best describes the speaker's feelings about the bees?

self-effacing admiration

intimacy and love

maddening irritation

alternating fascination and fear
21 What type of stanzas appear in the poem?

The stanzas are unmatched

Tercets

Sestets

Couplets
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 bees' collaboration suggests that only collaboration between women will better their lot

The queen bee represents the feminists of the twentieth century

The speaker's desire to engage with insects hints at a need to escape human gender norms
23 Which mythological figure is alluded to in the poem?

Persephone

Narcissus

Daphne

Hercules
24 What do the trees most closely symbolize?

The abundance of nature

Escape from conflict

Strength

The speaker's ambivalence
25 Which of the following is a metaphor?

"There is only a little grid, no exit"

"In my moon suit and funeral veil"

"They can die, I can feed them nothing"

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

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…