Summary
The speaker tries to listen to the bees, but their buzzing is as meaningless as Latin to her, and she's no Roman emperor. She ponders the fact that she can send them back, or starve them to death, as their owner. Next, wondering about the state of the bees, she considers whether they are hungry and whether they would hurt her or simply ignore her if she were to release them and transform into a tree. She points out a laburnum tree, which resembles a colonnade, and a cherry tree that looks like a woman's petticoat. Next, the speaker wonders whether the bees would pay any attention to her if she wore her beekeeping uniform, consisting of an otherworldly suit and a headdress like a mourning veil. After all, she can't offer them honey, which is what they want. Therefore, they have no reason to harm her. Tomorrow, she resolves, she will use her godlike power for good and free them. Their box will be a temporary place of confinement and no more.
Analysis
In these closing stanzas, the speaker has already decided that she would like to set her bees free. After all, as we saw earlier, she finds it stressful, frightening, and guilt-inducing to hold power over them as their owner. The problem is that she now must figure out how to release them without bringing harm to herself. This makes sense on a literal level, since a loose swarm of bees might pose a straightforward threat. It also might show that the speaker, who feels some guilt about having imprisoned the bees, is afraid that they will take revenge on her. One complicating (and intriguing) factor here is the fact that the speaker seems unsure about just how much attention she'd like from the bees. She speaks about them ignoring or forgetting her, but offers very little information about whether she desires or fears those outcomes. We can guess that she has mixed feelings, both wishing for the safety of being ignored and craving the thrill of being noticed. Just as the speaker feels both thrilled and appalled at the thought of holding power over the bees, she feels both thrilled and appalled at the thought of the bees harming her.
The first strategy that the speaker considers is turning into a tree. Since the poem seems to be set in a realistic world, it seems likely that the speaker means this as a fantasy or metaphor, rather than a real or literal plan. She's also alluding to Greek mythology here—specifically the figure of Daphne, who turns into a laurel tree to escape the pursuit of the god Apollo. In other words, by saying that she might turn into a tree to avoid the bees' attention, the speaker is insinuating that the threat of the bees resembles that of sexual violence. We can read this as a critique of gender dynamics—women who are subjects of male attention may feel threatened instead of powerful or flattered, just as the owner of a box of bees feels frightened of their attention. Maybe the speaker, like Daphne, is willing to sacrifice power, agency, and even her identity for safety. Yet the following lines render this direct allegorical reading more difficult. The speaker names a few trees. She specifically talks about a laburnum and a cherry tree. She describes the laburnum as having "blonde colonnades," comparing it not just to stately architecture but, implicitly, to a woman. She also describes the cherry tree as having "petticoats," a type of old-fashioned women's undergarment. The mentions of blondness and petticoats don't merely evoke women, but specifically evoke a highly feminine, traditional, and even sexualized femininity. Moreover, laburnum trees are extremely poisonous. It's not totally clear what the speaker intends to get across here. One possible reading, though, is that she doesn't want to turn into a passive object just to escape the threat of the bees. She's interested in maintaining some power and in garnering some attention, even if it brings danger. Yet again, we see the speaker torn between the thrill of danger and the promise of safety.
The second strategy the speaker considers is making herself entirely invisible to the bees, obscuring her identity inside the safest and most conventional outfit she can wear: a beekeeper's suit. Plath describes this uniform in language that makes it seem bizarre and otherworldly, calling it a "moon suit and funeral veil." These images are very different from those of the blonde, petticoated trees, and they suggest an opting-out—from femininity, conflict, and excitement. The speaker, here, resolves to set the bees free, putting an end to her back-and-forth with them. She even assures herself that the bees won't harm her, since, in her beekeeping suit, she has nothing to offer them. However, even while she says that she will free the bees, she speaks only in the future tense. We never actually see her complete the action. Plath leaves us with the suggestion that the speaker may again change her mind, unable to let go of the frightening, exhilarating tension of her relationship with them.
