Elizabeth Bishop concludes her famous poem “An Art” with the lines: “It is evident that the art of losing is not too difficult to master / even if it may seem...disaster." Although “One Art” lists many literal and symbolic forms of loss, the one that becomes most prominent in Bishop's poetry is the loss of time. “In the Waiting Room” and “At the Fishhouses ” both show the relationship between personal development and the passage of time. In this essay I intend to explore the different ways Bishop uses imagery to demonstrate growth and maturity over time in these poems. Say no to plagiarism tailored on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an Original Essay Although these poems “At the Fishhouses,” first published in 1947, use imagery of very similar ages and seasons as “In the Waiting” Room,” which wasn’t written until the 1970s. The poems begin similarly, with the speaker of "At the Fishhouses" saying "Though it be a cold evening, / down by one of the fishhouses / an old man sits netted," which suggests that it is winter, the season of death. , and the image of the old man in the cold reiterates this. Meanwhile, the speaker of “The Waiting Room,” who is assumed to be a young bishop, begins by speaking in very concrete terms about her surroundings, as when she says “It was winter. It got dark / early. The waiting room / was full of adults, / arctics and overcoats. As in “At the Fishhouses,” these lines suggest that it is the season of death, except in this poem it is the death of his childhood. His language moves quickly from that of childhood to that of adulthood in his narrative, and this technique gives the reader a strong sense of his childhood stream of consciousness and anxiety of both waiting to leave the dentist and growing up . “At the Fishhouses,” the speaker comments, “Cold, dark, deep and absolutely clear, / the water clear, gray and frozen. . . Behind, behind us, / the dignified tall fir trees begin. The “tall dignified fir trees” have grown from seedlings, so the fact that they are literally and metaphorically behind the speaker and the old man suggests that they are even older than the trees. The description of the water is similar to the final verse of “In the Waiting Room,” when it says “Outside / … it was night, mud and cold / and it was still the fifth / February 1918.” Here, young Elizabeth is returning to her present after being sporadically tossed between her past, present and future: she is neither an adult nor a child, because she is only 6 years old, but she is now aware of growth, being and life . adult understanding after reading National Geographic and hearing his aunt scream. While the verse of "At The Fishhouses" suggests certainty about his place in life, this last verse of "In the Waiting Room" represents a return to reality. The biggest difference between the two poems is the presence of childishness. While the movement to and from adulthood is central to “In the Waiting Room” as the emphasis is on the transition from childhood to adulthood, childhood is only veiled in “At the Fishhouses.” After noticing the frozen water and fir trees, the speaker says “Bluish, associating with their shadows, / a million Christmas trees are / waiting for Christmas.” The association of the fir trees behind her with Christmas is a nod to the childhood that is also behind her, but other than that, in this poem she remains focused on adulthood. Meanwhile, in “In the Waiting Room,” young Elizabeth moves back and forth between childhood and adulthood in her own language. He first notices how long his aunt has been waiting and childishly shares with the reader that he is reading National Geographic because "(she.