Wild Bees

The beehive is the epicenter of the poem’s action. The first stanza presents the beehive as a dark, foreboding place, the bees “clustering black at the crevice / Of a rotten cabbage tree” (Lines 5-6). This creates an atmosphere of adversity and antagonism contrasting with the opening’s lighter, summer imagery.

Later, the hive becomes a site of bloodshed. The speaker compares it to the great battles of classical myth. The inclusion of “torches” (Line 19) and “flames” (Line 20) evoke a burning battlefield. The hive is where heroes and enemies have fallen, and the speaker is now left to pick up the pieces of their onslaught. We have the image of “earth-black smouldering ashes” (Line 22), reminiscent of a ruined city after a war.

As the speaker sees their carnage, they begin to view the beehive as something more than an object to be conquered. It is “the city of instinctive wisdom” (Line 25). This ties into the theme of natural instinct; the bees have created not just honey, but an artistic kingdom. This contrasts with the imagery at the poem’s opening; it shows how the speaker has grown.