Comparison of "The Arrival of the Beebox" and "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock"
In Sylvia Plath's "The Arrival of the Bee Box" and T. S. Eliot's "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" both speakers are burdened by great mental anguish caused by their feeling of insignificance and powerlessness in the world. They both fear and accept the prospect of death, while acknowledging life as its opposite. These are the two sides of the human experience. Through an internal monologue, Prufrock explores his feeling of uselessness and displacement in society, while in "The Arrival of the Bee Box", the speaker is concerned with their powerlessness over their mind, and impending consequences.
Throughout "The Arrival of the Bee Box", the speaker is concerned with their powerlessness to the noises in their mind. The speaker tends to contradict or argue with themselves as shown by contrasting tone and opinion. While the speaker knows that "(the box) is dangerous" they still "can't keep away from it". The speaker wishes to "be sweet God", yet denies desiring power by proclaiming that "I am not a Caesar". This bi-polar behaviour is also shown by inconsistent rhyming throughout the poem. In the first stanza "lift" is rhymed with "midget" and "it", yet in other stanzas no rhyming is found at all. Inconsistently throughout the poem, internal rhymes are found - "square as a chair", "din in it", "It is dark, dark" - which add to the staccato feel of the poem. The "din" of the 'bees' is emphasised profusely by using consonance and onomatopoeia - "It is the noise that appals me most of all. The unintelligible syllables" - that highlight the true noise and confusion in the speaker's mind. The noise of their mind is highlighted by many metaphors that compare the sound to "furious Latin", a "Roman mob", "angrily clambering", "a box of maniacs" and "unintelligible syllables". The tone of the end of the piece seems to ask for help as the speaker asks many questions such as "how hungry they are?", "if they would forget me?", "how can I let them out?", and "why should they
Throughout "The Arrival of the Bee Box", the speaker is concerned with their powerlessness to the noises in their mind. The speaker tends to contradict or argue with themselves as shown by contrasting tone and opinion. While the speaker knows that "(the box) is dangerous" they still "can't keep away from it". The speaker wishes to "be sweet God", yet denies desiring power by proclaiming that "I am not a Caesar". This bi-polar behaviour is also shown by inconsistent rhyming throughout the poem. In the first stanza "lift" is rhymed with "midget" and "it", yet in other stanzas no rhyming is found at all. Inconsistently throughout the poem, internal rhymes are found - "square as a chair", "din in it", "It is dark, dark" - which add to the staccato feel of the poem. The "din" of the 'bees' is emphasised profusely by using consonance and onomatopoeia - "It is the noise that appals me most of all. The unintelligible syllables" - that highlight the true noise and confusion in the speaker's mind. The noise of their mind is highlighted by many metaphors that compare the sound to "furious Latin", a "Roman mob", "angrily clambering", "a box of maniacs" and "unintelligible syllables". The tone of the end of the piece seems to ask for help as the speaker asks many questions such as "how hungry they are?", "if they would forget me?", "how can I let them out?", and "why should they