Swarming Bees and Floating Signifiers in Margaret Cavendish's Poems and Fancies

Margaret Cavendish's seventeenth-century poem, "The Head of Man Compared to a Hive of Bees," calls attention to the position of honeybees as floating signifiers in literature. In her short poem, she creates simile after simile, comparing bees to physiological, political, social, and l...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inWomen's writing : the Elizabethan to Victorian period Vol. 31; no. 4; pp. 736 - 753
Main Author Smid, Deanna
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Abingdon Routledge 01.10.2024
Taylor & Francis Ltd
Subjects
bees
Cavendish, Margaret, Duchess of Newcastle-upon-Tyne (1623-1673)
early modern
floating signifier
Margaret Cavendish
metaphor
Poetry
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Summary:Margaret Cavendish's seventeenth-century poem, "The Head of Man Compared to a Hive of Bees," calls attention to the position of honeybees as floating signifiers in literature. In her short poem, she creates simile after simile, comparing bees to physiological, political, social, and literary concerns. Bees appear to be mere similes, divorced from their "real," natural state, but Cavendish's poem in fact reveals the fraught nature of bee similes. The lived reality of honeybees is a secondary concern to poets, Cavendish's poem implies, for bees are more important as recognizable and polysemous symbols than as creatures with their own experiences and needs.
ISSN:0969-9082
1747-5848
DOI:10.1080/09699082.2024.2375895