Tone is established by very even rhythm – each image is given it’s own line, the iambic trimeter (the rhythm) is very regular – suggests a calmness, even boredom for the speaker.

Lack of emotive language in these lines helps develop the calm tone – the line lack any emotive adjectives that suggest any kind of attitude on behalf of the speaker.

Individuals are only described by what they wear. Again emphasis is on objective description, which helps to establish the naivety and innocence of the young speaker.

The volcano is an example of vertical imagery. It is simply a description, but can be considered as a metaphor as it reflects the violent explosion of knowledge that occurs within the young speaker.

The image of the “Long Pig” again suggests her innocence. It also foreshadows the weight of the understanding to come – the adult world is full of dark knowledge that we are protected from as children.

Images of women who are physically marked because they are women. Their identity is shaped simply because they are women – this links nicely to Bishop’s idea that our identity is often determined by social expectations and ‘rules’

The women are seen as objects – their individuality is stripped of them.

Short, sharp statements, that suggests a need to see. She seems to need to mark this moment: know which magazine this experience has come from, know the date on which this has occurred. These are nice, clear markers of the external world that she is about to leave.

The key word here is ‘inside’. – this is a pun being used as it could suggest both Aunt Consuelo’s physical voice or an internal voice within the speaker. This starts to link the speaker to her aunt and suggests that her identity isn’t as individual as she though.

Here she is discovering that is identical with her aunt – she is herself, but also her aunt. This is the idea that our identity is partly shaped by our families and is therefore partly out of our control.

All of a sudden our speaker is falling outside the normal boundaries of her identity even as she is desperately trying to fix the date of the magazine in her head. An internal realisation is going on that is pulling the speaker out of her normal reality but she is resisting being pulled out by it. The rhythm here suggests agitation and confusion because it is no longer regular.

Bishop focuses again on objective images – descriptions of the real world – to indicate the needs/desires of the speaker to hold on to things she understands. This suggests that she is feeling overwhelmed by her epiphany.

Another metaphor is being employed here – another vertical image. This time it is about falling. This helps to express the negative impact of new knowledge – the image is an effective reflection of panic.

The fundamental struggle is laid out by the speaker. She is both an ‘I’, an individual who has her own identity, but also an Elizabeth - the person that other people know, judge, read, etc. And also ‘one of them’ - a female, a human being - someone who is forced to fit into certain social categories.

In Worcester, Massachusetts,I went with Aunt Consueloto keep her dentist's appointmentand sat and waited for herin the dentist's waiting room.It was winter. It got darkearly. The waiting roomwas full of grown-up people,arctics and overcoats,lamps and magazines. My aunt was insidewhat seemed like a long timeand while I waited and readthe National Geographic(I could read) and carefullystudied the photographs:the inside of a volcano,black, and full of ashes;then it was spilling overin rivulets of fire.Osa and Martin Johnsondressed in riding breeches,laced boots, and pith helmets.A dead man slung on a pole"Long Pig," the caption said.Babies with pointed headswound round and round with string;black, naked women with neckswound round and round with wirelike the necks of light bulbs.Their breasts were horrifying.I read it right straight through. I was too shy to stop. And then I looked at the cover: the yellow margins, the date.Suddenly, from inside,came an oh! of pain--Aunt Consuelo's voice--not very loud or long.I wasn't at all surprised;even then I knew she wasa foolish, timid woman.I might have been embarrassed,but wasn't. What took mecompletely by surprisewas that it was me:my voice, in my mouth.Without thinking at allI was my foolish aunt,I--we--were falling, falling, our eyes glued to the coverof the National Geographic,February, 1918.

I said to myself: three daysand you'll be seven years old.I was saying it to stopthe sensation of falling offthe round, turning world.into cold, blue-black space.But I felt: you are an I,you are an Elizabeth,you are one of them.

Why should you be one, too?I scarcely dared to lookto see what it was I was.I gave a sidelong glance--I couldn't look any higher--at shadowy gray knees,trousers and skirts and bootsand different pairs of handslying under the lamps.I knew that nothing strangerhad ever happened, that nothingstranger could ever happen.

Why should I be my aunt,or me, or anyone?What similaritiesboots, hands, the family voiceI felt in my throat, or eventhe National Geographicand those awful hanging breastsheld us all togetheror made us all just one?How I didn't know anyword for it how "unlikely". . .How had I come to be here,like them, and overheara cry of pain that could havegot loud and worse but hadn't?

The waiting room was brightand too hot. It was slidingbeneath a big black wave,another, and another.

Then I was back in it.The War was on. Outside,in Worcester, Massachusetts,were night and slush and cold,and it was still the fifthof February, 1918. 

The use of ‘then’ indicates a shift or turn to a different time. She’s suddenly returns to the external world where it’s winter and gets dark and where there is a war happening and where the date is still the same. So, in many ways, nothing has changed. But, for the speaker, everything has changed. She has lost herself but also remade herself. The repetition in the structure helps to remind us of where the speaker started and where she has arrived at by the end.