Well, this concludes my blogging. I have to say, I enjoyed this assignment more than I thought I would. It was an interesting medium to work in, and I liked the lessened formality. I may continue blogging in the future, but for now I think this will be my final post.Thank you to anyone who read this.
Sincerely,
Sophie
Tuesday, 21 May 2013
In The Waiting Room- Elizabeth Bishop
I'll be perfectly honest, I had never heard of this poet before this poem was reccommended. But after reading it, I think it is definately worthy of analysis. This is a longer poem, so I will post a link to the full text and only use parts of the poem when they come up in the analysis.
The story told by this poem is simple on the surface. The speaker details a time she visited the dentist's office with her aunt. While there, she hears her aunt cry out in pain. This is what sparks the main thread of the poem. Before we get into that though, let's go over the devices and meters of the text.
"In The Waiting Room" is in free verse, so there isn't much in the way of rhyme scheme or meter. However, there are still many devices within the poem. The lines use short words, conveying the childishness of the speaker. because she is seven at the time, this works. It's also an interesting way of conveying the poem's meaning through the eyes of a child. I like this way of looking at an issue, as it brings a new perspective and meaning.
Now, back to the story. The first half of the poem is largely description of the titular waiting room. the speaker tells us about the other people in the room and the magazine she is reading. Around halfway through the piece, the speaker's aunt gasps out in pain. Here is where the poem gets philosophical.
The speaker states that
I wasn't at all surprised;
even then I knew she was
a foolish, timid woman.
I might have been embarrassed,
but wasn't. What took me
completely by surprise
was that it was me:
my voice, in my mouth.
Without thinking at all
I was my foolish aunt,
I--we--were falling, falling,
our eyes glued to the cover
of the National Geographic,
February, 1918
She continues in this vein for the rest of the poem, stating:
But I felt: you are an I,
you are an Elizabeth,
you are one of them.
Why should you be one, too?
I find this interesting, as this poem details the moment that the speaker realized that she was a human, the same as the people sitting around her in the waiting room.
The reason I like this poem is this issue. often, when people talk about humans as a whole, they do not include themselves. I know this happens to me. We do not realize it, but we are all very much the same. This is not often thought about, at least in my experiance. This is also the reason that I think the child's perspective suits this poem. Young children have a different way of thinking than adults (or almost-adults, as the case may be), and I'm not sure a fully-grown speaker would have realized that they were a person, just from a pained cry at a dentist's office
Next post: Conclusion
Full Text: In The Waiting Room, by Elizabeth Bishop
The story told by this poem is simple on the surface. The speaker details a time she visited the dentist's office with her aunt. While there, she hears her aunt cry out in pain. This is what sparks the main thread of the poem. Before we get into that though, let's go over the devices and meters of the text.
"In The Waiting Room" is in free verse, so there isn't much in the way of rhyme scheme or meter. However, there are still many devices within the poem. The lines use short words, conveying the childishness of the speaker. because she is seven at the time, this works. It's also an interesting way of conveying the poem's meaning through the eyes of a child. I like this way of looking at an issue, as it brings a new perspective and meaning.
Now, back to the story. The first half of the poem is largely description of the titular waiting room. the speaker tells us about the other people in the room and the magazine she is reading. Around halfway through the piece, the speaker's aunt gasps out in pain. Here is where the poem gets philosophical.
The speaker states that
I wasn't at all surprised;
even then I knew she was
a foolish, timid woman.
I might have been embarrassed,
but wasn't. What took me
completely by surprise
was that it was me:
my voice, in my mouth.
Without thinking at all
I was my foolish aunt,
I--we--were falling, falling,
our eyes glued to the cover
of the National Geographic,
February, 1918
She continues in this vein for the rest of the poem, stating:
But I felt: you are an I,
you are an Elizabeth,
you are one of them.
Why should you be one, too?
I find this interesting, as this poem details the moment that the speaker realized that she was a human, the same as the people sitting around her in the waiting room.
The reason I like this poem is this issue. often, when people talk about humans as a whole, they do not include themselves. I know this happens to me. We do not realize it, but we are all very much the same. This is not often thought about, at least in my experiance. This is also the reason that I think the child's perspective suits this poem. Young children have a different way of thinking than adults (or almost-adults, as the case may be), and I'm not sure a fully-grown speaker would have realized that they were a person, just from a pained cry at a dentist's office
Next post: Conclusion
Full Text: In The Waiting Room, by Elizabeth Bishop
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