It was Sylvia Plath’s birthday just a few days ago (Oct 27th), so my unintentional good timing strikes again! I’ve had “The Bee Meeting” on my illustration radar for awhile, but only recently did I work out what I wanted to do for it. I encourage you to read the entire poem – it is just a short click away here. The link is to a Sylvia Plath discussion forum, and so various interesting (and some quite extensive) interpretations of the poem follow the text. Drawing (pencil on paper) and composition by me.
Illustrated Poetry 
Love this poem — and wasn’t familiar with it before, thank you for that.
Dunno if you ever read The Belle Jar blog? If not, you might find Anne Theriault’s recent post about Plath of interest: http://bellejar.ca/2015/10/28/what-i-wish-everyone-knew-about-sylvia-plath/
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It is my pleasure – I am so glad it resonated with you. I am a regular reader of The Belle Jar – I did see that post – it was a good one! In fact, I’m pretty sure Ms. Theriault was who alerted me that it was Sylvia Plath’s birthday! 🙂
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poems are “impassioned reorganizations of relevant fact”
Love that quote from Ted Hughes in the comments below her poem. This drawing is tough for me to look at without wincing. Success! ouch!
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Thank you, Jilanne! It really is one of the best “comments section” for a poem I have seen online! I think Hughes hit the nail on the head with that one. I read so many poems and I have this urge to try and see the poet’s story that underlies the symbols – to sort out the reorganization, as he put it. I often feel like it lies below the surface, just beyond my grasp…but that only eggs the scientist in me on!
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I very much like your drawing…and reading anything Sylvia Plath is always interesting.
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Thank you so much! And I agree – her work is fascinating – as the years go by I am discovering new elements and layers in her poems.
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You capture the vulnerability perfectly. Wonderful pairing.
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Thank you! I think “vulnerability” is a perfect word for the feeling of this poem – it has so many layers of it.
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Thanks for the link. Very interesting discussions.
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You are very welcome! I don’t normally point folks towards “comment sections”, but I thought these were particularly good and relevant.
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