The Poetry Of Sylvia Plath's 'The Arrival Of The Bee Box'

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“The Poetry of Sylvia Plath is intense, deeply personal and quite disturbing.” Do you agree with this assessment of her poetry? Write a response supporting your point with the aid of suitable references to the poems you have studied. Sylvia Plath’s poetry is a poetry of emotional extremes and while there are moments of joy and optimism in her poems, the prevailing mood is dark and filled with fear. I do agree with the above statement as many of her poems are about extremely personal subjects, such as becoming a mother. She conveys the mood of her poetry through many unusual images and metaphors, which are extraordinarily intense, and allow the reader to think. These metaphors are also memorable, haunting and sometimes terrifying to the reader.…show more content…
The bee box is also symbolic to her emotions, as she is trying to control them. This is an intimate poem to Plath, as it is about her depression and anxiety. It is in the narrative form. The poem opens on an extremely unusual image and metaphor of Plath describing the box. “Coffin of a midget.” This makes the reader think about death, and this could reflect how Plath was feeling. The poet then describes her feelings, how she is coping with anxiety and depression. She is frightened, but yet intrigued. “It is dangerous… and I cant keep away from it.” She admits to the reader she cannot escape from how she is feeling although she is curious about learning more. “No exit, I put my eye to the grid, it is dark.” After this, she describes an image of herself being a slave to her feelings. “Swarmy feeling of African hands.” She is aggressive towards her emotions, using a simile to describe them as unsettling and dangerous. “Like a Roman mob.” This image could be unsettling for some readers. She continues this simile by stating she does not control her emotions. “I lay my ear to furious latin, I am not Ceasar.” She then contradicts herself by depiticing that she could control her emotions if she wanted to. “They can be sent back… I am the owner.” She continues the image of flowers from her poems “Child” and “Morning Song” by describing them as peaceful. They are symbolic to her letting go of her emotions. “There is laburnum, and the petticoats of the cherry.” She ends the poem on an optimistic note, this is unusal because she has ended most of her other poems pessimistically. She describes the way she is feeling as being temporary. She says she wants to let go of her emotions. She depicts them as fluxuating, and this links to her depression. “I will set them free, the box is only

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