In the Waiting Room

‘and waited for her in the dentist’s waiting room’ – a normal scene of childhood boredom; simple start, simple language

‘the waiting room was full of grown-up people’ – establishes the age of the speaker

‘my aunt was inside what seemed like a long time’ – a child’s mindset is accurately captured here

‘the inside of a volcano, black, and full of ashes’ – the pictures foreshadow an impending danger

‘then it was spilling over’ – present tense, as if it’s alive

‘a dead man slung on a pole’ – deeply unsettling images for the young speaker

‘wound round and round with string’ – emphasises the shock of the child, as if she was stuck in a trance, unable to look away

‘I read it right straight through. I was too shy to stop’ – disturbing images pile up on the reader, overwhelming her; there is a compulsion to read on

‘and then I looked at the cover’ – perhaps the young Bishop is trying to convince herself that ‘it’s only a magazine’

‘I might have been embarrassed, but wasn’t’ – trying to draw distinctions between her and her ‘foolish’ aunt

‘it was me, my voice, in my mouth’ – she recognises the similarities between her and her aunt, perhaps imagining that they are the same person

‘I – we – were falling’ – with her trademark adjustment, two become one; is she falling out of her childhood?

‘three days and you’ll be seven tears old’ – even she will grow up and become the adults in the waiting room

‘the round, turning world into cold, blue-black space’ – disorienting language reinforces the discomfort

‘I scarcely dared to look to see what it was I was’ – if she is part of humanity, what does it look like?

‘why should I be my aunt, or me, or anyone?’ – no attempts are made to answer these questions; she is simply pondering her identity

‘what similarities … held us all together or made us all just one?’ – what makes her different, and what makes her the same?

‘the waiting room was bright’ – normality starts to return, and the shock subsides

‘it was sliding beneath a big black wave’ – all the emotions flood through her; a dark and scary metaphor for a child

‘then I was back in it’ – back to reality

‘the war was on … and it was still the fifth of February., 1918’ just as it begins, the poem ends with facts, making us reflect on what we have read