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

Somebody who has just ordered a box full of bees

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

A bee who lives on a farm
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 Mandeville

Fanny Burney

Mary Leapor

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

The speaker's thoughts

Climate change

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?

The Bell Jar

Double Exposure

The Colossus

Ariel
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 written in a different meter

It is only one line long

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

ran away

turned into a tree

closed my eyes

died
10 Which is an example of irony?

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

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

intrigues

appalls

ensnares

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

A coffin

A chair

A tent

A baby
13 How many stanzas are in the poem?

3

7

9

5
14 The speaker compares the bees to a mob from where?

Ancient Rome

Revolutionary America

The Old West

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

A kitchen counter

A type of tree

A diploma

A New England company
16 What is the meaning of the word "din"?

Noise

Sunset

Dinner

Hillside
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 speaker loses her power when she buys the bees and gives up her job

The bees' power comes from their cleanliness and cooperativeness

The speaker struggles for power, but is no match for nature
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 bee's decision about whether to sting the human

The beekeeper's conflict with the industrialist

The speaker's fight against the queen bee

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

alternating fascination and fear

maddening irritation

self-effacing admiration

intimacy and love
21 What type of stanzas appear in the poem?

Sestets

Couplets

The stanzas are unmatched

Tercets
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 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
23 Which mythological figure is alluded to in the poem?

Persephone

Hercules

Narcissus

Daphne
24 What do the trees most closely symbolize?

Escape from conflict

Strength

The abundance of nature

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

"In my moon suit and funeral veil"

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

"They can die, I can feed them nothing"

"There is only a little grid, no exit"

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…