In the Waiting Room
by Elizabeth Bishop
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At a glance:
- Author: Elizabeth Bishop
- First Published: 1976
- Type of Work: Poem
- Genres: Poetry, Lyric poetry
- Subjects: Children, Self-discovery, United States or Americans, Twentieth century, 1910's, New England, World War I, Dentistry or dentists, Consciousness, Winter
The Work
“In the Waiting Room” is a frequently anthologized poem which describes a moment of awakening consciousness in the poet’s early life. The speaker sets the scene with Bishop’s characteristic attention to minute detail. She has accompanied her Aunt Consuelo to the dentist’s office and waits for her through the dark afternoon or evening of Massachusetts in February. While she waits, she reads a copy of National Geographic, observing the pictures of naked women, a dead man “slung on a pole,” and a volcanic eruption. The pictures of the women both...
(The entire page is 528 words.)
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