Bee Meeting Poem Summary - YAZDA LITERATURE

Now , will discuss about POEM Bee Meeting summary in detail .Before discussing the summary of Bee Meeting poem , we will have to check out its background .Bee Meeting is one of the five poems that Sylvia Plath conceived as a sequence and its critical analysis gives knowledge of her personal life and its hardships .The fact that she wrote these poems less than a week in October 1962 s as her marriage was breaking up ,may help us reveals some of the complexities . A careful analysis and summary of Bee Meeting poem and the five poems give the reader the impression that the writer is indulging in a sort of self assessment and redemption , both personally and poetically . The ” I” in the poem indicates that the speaker’ s wish to scrutinize her relationships with the world .The sequence titled the Bee poems moves from community in the bee meeting to solitude in “wintering ” the speaker seems to be in a process of setting her relationship with others and with her on former selves.

In this poem Bee Meeting,or its summary informs us about Sylvia Plath’s life and about her fears , her insecurity, her break up with her husband ,her married life and its hardships, her reaction towards society and society reaction toward her , her child hood fears and doubts , her rape incident . It is also said that Bee Meeting poem in Critical Analysis sense can be checked out that it is Sylvia ‘s delivery operation experience.So in this manner , this poem proves to be subjective not objective. As name of the poem suggests that it is only ritual activity or gathering honey by hive

Perhaps subconsciously the poem reveals a movement from an internal preoccupation with others to an inward concern for the self. Beginning with the bee meeting Plath manages to case the stylistic excesses as she relates from the pressures of gender conflicts to the inner rhythms of her on exigencies.The Bee meeting exhibits new aesthetics , the style of excess utilizes the poem thought not that markedly and the writer seems to discover other energies too. In fact all the Bee poems including the Bee Meeting shows Plath’s effort at toning down her stylistic excesses .But the bee meeting is a beautiful instance of how the style of excess censured elsewhere adds to the poetic value of the poem.

CLICK HERE Bee Meeting Critical Analysis

CLICK HERE The Theme of Death in Sylvia Plath’s Poetry

CLICK HERE Ariel Poem Critical Analysis

CLICK HERE Symbolism in Sylvia Plath poetry

Bee Meeting Poem Summary:-

The bee meeting apparently refers to a very common activity,i.e , smoking the bees , taking out the honey helping the beast colonize the hive again the process may involve eliminating the old Queen and making room for the new Queen or Queens . The poet seems in capable of keeping her self aloof from the experience she comments on and the self keeps interfering with object of comment sometimes more than it should. All know that act remains subjective in the ultimate analysis but the observation of the self with the object of study or the object under observation is unduly excessive.The reader lends to forget about the Bees and The Bee meeting and focuses his attention on the fear of the “I” in the poem .The theme or the subject matter of the poem is fear. Fear seems to spring from the mystery that Sylvia manages to invest the poem with and the element of fear is rather out of proportion with the nature of the ritual .This is probably why many varied are the interpretation of the bee meeting .The fear exhibited in the poem is the fear of a paranoid individual .This is the impression we gather because of the excess of fear and also because of our inability to identify the cause. The villagers who wish her to accompanied them scare the “I ” in the poem who in her summary dress finds herself ill prepared for participating in the task. she, imaginatively , identifies herself with the old Queen Bee and harbour’s of fear from the bee as well as villagers .They help her dress up like themselves and looking like a milkweed. She becomes to have a sense of security which seems short lived and ambivalent. The simple villagers ,to the I” in the poem seem mysterious creature that one reads about in history books and folklore . They are mysteriously attired and have
“Breastplates of chees cloth knotted under the armpits”The natural phenomena ,on this particular occasion put on strange and alien looks. The ordinary flowers look like “eyed” reveals with no hope and ambition and the leaves look like bored hearts. The villagers want her to be one of them and once the operation is over .She feels bruised and spiked by thorny plants .The smoked bees hum about crazily and the “I” adopts a specific posture ,hoping that by so doing she will be able to protect herself from the stings of the bees from a nagging sense of participation in a cruel ceremony. For the bees it’s the end of the world though the Queen Bee manages to gull the villagers for the time being though not hopping to live a long .As we read the through the poem we can’t help concluding that the poem reads like a dramatic monologue thought the I” is not aiming at being audible .We could thus call or label it an inner monologue .

The villagers wish to move the virgin bees least they should kill the old Queen. Sylvia Plath,thus , seems to be in the midst of an imitation ceremony the ambivalence and ambiguity of images used suggests fear, in security, the inevitability of death, the precarious nature of life and deception at the hands of those whom we come into contact with .The poem constitutes an interesting panorama of emotions. The poet’s identification with the old Queen also suggests her sense of being somewhat obsolete . It may have biographical under tones for suggestion she says” I am nude as a chicken neck does nobody love me” ?She wishes to be loved lout seems to resent uniformity . Passivity ,she believes might serve as a means of escape or as a nurse that will keep her unharmed as” They will think I am cow-parsley.” It seems she is scary of the bees as well as the rector the sexton and the midwife. They are all Cherry and relish their success. The actual in experience, time and again, like the swing of a pendulum ,moves into the dream like world where in the ordinary objects take on symbolic dimension .The whole experience seems to to be a voyage of discovery . Survival necessitates merge a being one of the community we are member of community but the some community, ironically , is there to abuse and destroy you the symbolical connotations of the actual make the poem move between life and death and also between the actual and the symbolic or metaphorical .The virgins are moved by the villagers to a avert death but what confuses the reader is the fact that to secure the future of the hive a smoking out ceremony is performed. The villagers wish to thrive but the smoking brings about the feeling of elimination to the bees. The ambivalence encountered in the poem maybe the ambivalence one actually experiences in life .We all are parts of a community ,wish to be so, but do harbour at the same time ,the desire to rebel and be different. The” I “even till the end of the poem is incapable of answering all the questions satisfactory raised frequently in the course of the poem .The inability to answer this question sometimes induces surrender and resignation to avoid being couched by the animosity of the bees .The poem therefore is highly suggestive and assimilating the contents necessitates tremendous exertion of our speculation faculties.

CLICK HERE Bee Meeting Critical Analysis

CLICK HERE The Theme of Death in Sylvia Plath’s Poetry

CLICK HERE Ariel Poem Critical Analysis

CLICK HERE Symbolism in Sylvia Plath poetry

As far as the summary of Bee Meeting poem is concerned , it is very stark and vivid in this manners which are under below:-

“Who are these people at the bridge to meet me? They are the villagers—The rector, the midwife, the sexton, the agent for bees.In my sleeveless summery dress I have no protection,And they are all gloved and covered, why did nobody tell me?They are smiling and taking out veils tacked to ancient hats.”

Above lines narrate that she is in position of doubts and skepticism , she does not know who is who .Here she is confused she even does not know they love her , they are her well wishers or enemies. I have no protection,And they are all gloved and covered, why did nobody tell me? is clear cut prove her insecurity .As know she is neglected child of her parents .She was neglected and ignored her father in childhood .So that is why she considered herself she is alone in the this universe .There is no one who can understand her .She is frustrated lady as well as special child. In this poem Bee Meeting actually she is telling about us her personal experience . The society is not ready giving to place her .

“I am nude as a chicken neck, does nobody love me?Yes, here is the secretary of bees with her white shop smock,Buttoning the cuffs at my wrists and the slit from my neck to my knees.Now I am milkweed silk, the bees will not notice.Thev will not smell my fear, my fear, my fear.”

Once again the theme of insecurity can be seen in above lines when she says that“I am nude as a chicken neck, does nobody love me?” When this operation is going to take place then she is realizing that she is not in comfortable clothes rather others are in perfect dresses and she is thinking about that the bees may be or mighty be noticed me because she is not in proper dress. “Does nobody love me?” line is hall mark of her personal life , as we have been discussed above , she is frustrated woman , but above line is naked reality of it , she is neglected by her parents , she could not mange her relation with her husband and he was indulged with others women , and he got marriage an other lady . Actually in this poem her feelings of about her husband Ted Hughes reflects here .When he gets marriage other lady , she demands that she wants to the house of Sylvia where she is living or she herself would get out of that house.In Bee meeting poem and its critical analysis here makes this not poem in which only honey is gathering rather it is a story about Sylvia’s personal life “Smoke rolls and scarves in the grove.The mind of the hive thinks this is the end of everything.”In gathering honey process , smoke is lighted up so that the bees may ran away , in smoking process the bee are feeling suffocation , and other sense makes here, when honey is taken to collect the Queen bee is been placed by an other Queen bee .This is all we cam see in this poem or Sylvia is thinking about her life has been made suffocated she even cant take breath in her home .Thus , she has been thought moreover , she has been replaced by other wife of Ted Hughes .

“I cannot run, I am rooted, and the gorse hurts me With its yellow purses, its spiky armory.I could not run without having to run forever.The white hive is snug as a virgin,Sealing off her brood cells, her honey, and quietly humming.”

“I cannot run, I am rooted, is justification of the theme of “Power and Limitation” which is very common theme in Sylvia Plath’s poetry , “I could not run without having to run forever.” is an other prove and this is also suggests that when she was raped by a negero , where , she can not do so any more , she is too bond there .When her husband makes an other marry she also was too helpless in the hands of fate.She has limited in her range , the circumstance were her against. “The white hive is snug as a virgin,Sealing off her brood cells, her honey, and quietly humming.”also talks about Ted’s conguel life of future planning .

“Dream of a duel they will win inevitably,A curtain of wax dividing them from the bride flight,The upflight of the murderess into a heaven that loves her.The villagers are moving the virgins, there will be no killing.The old queen does not show herself, is she so ungrateful?”

“Dream of a duel they will win inevitably,A curtain of wax dividing them from the bride flight, this is main evidence of her defeat , it seems that she has surrender before fate duel fight usually , refer to a fight takes place between to men on one woman but here, it is situational irony , here, two women are fighting for one men.She also has been understood her portion of house will be divided into parties.This will not remain that house which as was . The old queen does not show herself, is she so ungrateful?” , here she is complaining before society she says that her services are not to be considered as they were. As like a Queen Bee is get out from the hive after getting her honey same as the case is with Sylvia’s life . When Ted Hughes celebrates his ‘Honey Moon‘ with Sylvia and after getting his offspring , he is in mode kicks out his life as well as his home.This is very common in getting honey by hive Old queen is replaced having been got honey or her generations.he villagers wish to move the virgin bees least they should kill the old Queen. Sylvia Plath,thus , seems to be in the midst of an imitation ceremony the ambivalence and ambiguity of images used suggests fear, in security, the inevitability of death, the precarious nature of life and deception at the hands of those whom we come into contact with .

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“Is it some operation that is taking place?It is the surgeon my neighbors are waiting for,This apparition in a green helmet,Shining gloves and white suit.Is it the butcher, the grocer, the postman, someone I know?“

Bee Meeting poem in Critical Analysis and its summary sense can be checked out that it is Sylvia ‘s delivery operation experience.

“I am exhausted, I am exhausted—Pillar of white in a blackout of knives.I am the magician’s girl who does not flinch.The villagers are untying their disguises, they are shaking hands.Whose is that long white box in the grove, what have they accomplished, why am I cold.”

At the end , we can say that Bee Meeting poem and its entire summary suggest that she is exhausted,now , she has been surrender before cruel fate.The villagers are untying their disguises, they are shaking hands.Whose is that long white box in the grove, what have they accomplished, why am I cold.”and it seems that she is waiting for death which is very common theme in Sylvia Plath ‘s poetry ‘white box‘ means here coffin.

CLICK HERE Bee Meeting Critical Analysis

CLICK HERE The Theme of Death in Sylvia Plath’s Poetry

CLICK HERE Ariel Poem Critical Analysis

CLICK HERE Symbolism in Sylvia Plath poetry

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