{"id":23691,"date":"2011-12-08T15:00:22","date_gmt":"2011-12-08T20:00:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?p=23691"},"modified":"2012-07-11T13:14:18","modified_gmt":"2012-07-11T17:14:18","slug":"beehive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2011\/12\/08\/beehive\/","title":{"rendered":"Jean Toomer\u2019s \u201cBeehive\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/beehive.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-24319\" title=\"beehive\" src=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/beehive.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"276\" height=\"301\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/beehive.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/beehive-276x300.jpg 276w\" sizes=\"auto, (min-width: 62.5em) 67vw, 100vw\" \/><\/a>Jean Toomer lived in Washington, D.C., but \u201cBeehive\u201d could be about any\u00a0city, and for me it\u2019s Manhattan. I live in Red Hook, so\u00a0from the window I can see Lower Manhattan across the river. It\u2019s massive and always in motion. At night,\u00a0the buildings\u00a0and the cars on the FDR look crystalline. They are all\u00a0bodies busy with their duties and\u00a0delights, like \u201cbees passing in and out the moon.\u201d I like that Toomer is also alert to the solitude and melancholy of being merely one among\u00a0millions.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>Beehive<\/p>\n<p>Within this black hive tonight\u00a0<br \/> There swarm a million bees;\u00a0<br \/> Bees passing in and out the moon,\u00a0<br \/>Bees escaping out the moon,\u00a0<br \/>Bees returning through the moon,\u00a0<br \/>Silver bees intently buzzing,\u00a0<br \/>Silver honey dripping from the swarm of bees\u00a0<br \/>Earth is a waxen cell of the world comb,\u00a0<br \/> And I, a drone,\u00a0<br \/>Lying on my back,\u00a0<br \/>Lipping honey,\u00a0<br \/>Getting drunk with silver honey,\u00a0<br \/>Wish that I might fly out past the moon\u00a0<br \/>And curl forever in some far-off farmyard flower.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Jean Toomer lived in Washington, D.C., but \u201cBeehive\u201d could be about any\u00a0city, and for me it\u2019s Manhattan. I live in Red Hook, so\u00a0from the window I can see Lower Manhattan across the river. It\u2019s massive and always in motion. At night,\u00a0the buildings\u00a0and the cars on the FDR look crystalline. They are all\u00a0bodies busy with their [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":265,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4715],"tags":[5043,5044,5040,4027,5042,5041],"class_list":["post-23691","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-poem-stuck-in-my-head","tag-bees","tag-fdr","tag-jean-toomer","tag-manhattan","tag-red-hook","tag-washington"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v25.4 (Yoast SEO v25.4) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Jean Toomer\u2019s \u201cBeehive\u201d by Rachel Kaadzi Ghansah<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"December 8, 2011 \u2013 Jean Toomer lived in Washington, D.C., but \u201cBeehive\u201d could be about any\u00a0city, and for me it\u2019s Manhattan. I live in Red Hook, so\u00a0from the window I can see\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2011\/12\/08\/beehive\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Jean Toomer\u2019s \u201cBeehive\u201d by Rachel Kaadzi Ghansah\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"December 8, 2011 \u2013 Jean Toomer lived in Washington, D.C., but \u201cBeehive\u201d could be about any\u00a0city, and for me it\u2019s Manhattan. I live in Red Hook, so\u00a0from the window I can see\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2011\/12\/08\/beehive\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Paris Review\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-12-08T20:00:22+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2012-07-11T17:14:18+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/beehive.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"300\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"326\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Rachel Kaadzi Ghansah\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@parisreview\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@parisreview\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Rachel Kaadzi Ghansah\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2011\/12\/08\/beehive\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2011\/12\/08\/beehive\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Rachel Kaadzi Ghansah\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/4a33d887eaba9262a051ff23d3bb32a0\"},\"headline\":\"Jean Toomer\u2019s \u201cBeehive\u201d\",\"datePublished\":\"2011-12-08T20:00:22+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2012-07-11T17:14:18+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2011\/12\/08\/beehive\/\"},\"wordCount\":177,\"commentCount\":5,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2011\/12\/08\/beehive\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/beehive.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"bees\",\"FDR\",\"Jean Toomer\",\"Manhattan\",\"Red Hook\",\"Washington\"],\"articleSection\":[\"The Poem Stuck in My Head\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2011\/12\/08\/beehive\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2011\/12\/08\/beehive\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2011\/12\/08\/beehive\/\",\"name\":\"Jean Toomer\u2019s \u201cBeehive\u201d by Rachel Kaadzi Ghansah\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2011\/12\/08\/beehive\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2011\/12\/08\/beehive\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/beehive.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2011-12-08T20:00:22+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2012-07-11T17:14:18+00:00\",\"description\":\"December 8, 2011 \u2013 Jean Toomer lived in Washington, D.C., but \u201cBeehive\u201d could be about any\u00a0city, and for me it\u2019s Manhattan. I live in Red Hook, so\u00a0from the window I can see\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2011\/12\/08\/beehive\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2011\/12\/08\/beehive\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2011\/12\/08\/beehive\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/beehive.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/beehive.jpg\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2011\/12\/08\/beehive\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Jean Toomer\u2019s \u201cBeehive\u201d\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"The Paris Review\",\"description\":\"The best prose, interviews, poetry, and art. Since 1953.\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization\",\"name\":\"The Paris Review\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png\",\"width\":696,\"height\":696,\"caption\":\"The Paris Review\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/parisreview\",\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/parisreview\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/4a33d887eaba9262a051ff23d3bb32a0\",\"name\":\"Rachel Kaadzi Ghansah\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b8c0164cc8e25171221c5c0e8c4c4224f531e3a1b836a11dccf3ec90f72776c4?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b8c0164cc8e25171221c5c0e8c4c4224f531e3a1b836a11dccf3ec90f72776c4?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Rachel Kaadzi Ghansah\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/author\/rachel-kaadzi-ghansah\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Jean Toomer\u2019s \u201cBeehive\u201d by Rachel Kaadzi Ghansah","description":"December 8, 2011 \u2013 Jean Toomer lived in Washington, D.C., but \u201cBeehive\u201d could be about any\u00a0city, and for me it\u2019s Manhattan. I live in Red Hook, so\u00a0from the window I can see","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2011\/12\/08\/beehive\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Jean Toomer\u2019s \u201cBeehive\u201d by Rachel Kaadzi Ghansah","og_description":"December 8, 2011 \u2013 Jean Toomer lived in Washington, D.C., but \u201cBeehive\u201d could be about any\u00a0city, and for me it\u2019s Manhattan. I live in Red Hook, so\u00a0from the window I can see","og_url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2011\/12\/08\/beehive\/","og_site_name":"The Paris Review","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/","article_published_time":"2011-12-08T20:00:22+00:00","article_modified_time":"2012-07-11T17:14:18+00:00","og_image":[{"width":300,"height":326,"url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/beehive.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Rachel Kaadzi Ghansah","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@parisreview","twitter_site":"@parisreview","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Rachel Kaadzi Ghansah","Est. reading time":"1 minute"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2011\/12\/08\/beehive\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2011\/12\/08\/beehive\/"},"author":{"name":"Rachel Kaadzi Ghansah","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/4a33d887eaba9262a051ff23d3bb32a0"},"headline":"Jean Toomer\u2019s \u201cBeehive\u201d","datePublished":"2011-12-08T20:00:22+00:00","dateModified":"2012-07-11T17:14:18+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2011\/12\/08\/beehive\/"},"wordCount":177,"commentCount":5,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2011\/12\/08\/beehive\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/beehive.jpg","keywords":["bees","FDR","Jean Toomer","Manhattan","Red Hook","Washington"],"articleSection":["The Poem Stuck in My Head"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2011\/12\/08\/beehive\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2011\/12\/08\/beehive\/","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2011\/12\/08\/beehive\/","name":"Jean Toomer\u2019s \u201cBeehive\u201d by Rachel Kaadzi Ghansah","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2011\/12\/08\/beehive\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2011\/12\/08\/beehive\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/beehive.jpg","datePublished":"2011-12-08T20:00:22+00:00","dateModified":"2012-07-11T17:14:18+00:00","description":"December 8, 2011 \u2013 Jean Toomer lived in Washington, D.C., but \u201cBeehive\u201d could be about any\u00a0city, and for me it\u2019s Manhattan. I live in Red Hook, so\u00a0from the window I can see","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2011\/12\/08\/beehive\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2011\/12\/08\/beehive\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2011\/12\/08\/beehive\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/beehive.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/beehive.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2011\/12\/08\/beehive\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Jean Toomer\u2019s \u201cBeehive\u201d"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/","name":"The Paris Review","description":"The best prose, interviews, poetry, and art. Since 1953.","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization","name":"The Paris Review","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png","width":696,"height":696,"caption":"The Paris Review"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/","https:\/\/x.com\/parisreview","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/parisreview"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/4a33d887eaba9262a051ff23d3bb32a0","name":"Rachel Kaadzi Ghansah","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b8c0164cc8e25171221c5c0e8c4c4224f531e3a1b836a11dccf3ec90f72776c4?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b8c0164cc8e25171221c5c0e8c4c4224f531e3a1b836a11dccf3ec90f72776c4?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Rachel Kaadzi Ghansah"},"url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/author\/rachel-kaadzi-ghansah\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23691","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/265"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23691"}],"version-history":[{"count":19,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23691\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35352,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23691\/revisions\/35352"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23691"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23691"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23691"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}