Speaker or Narrator, and Point of View
An elderly, but otherwise unidentified, person
Form and Meter
The poem consists of nine unrhymed quatrains. It is not a villanelle, but it contains influence from the villanelle form in its use of alternating refrains.
Metaphors and Similes
This poem is packed with metaphor and simile. These include "like cotton in my ears" (a simile), "spread and sink/like any blurred tattoo" (a simile), "bird-calls / dribble and the waterfalls / go unwiped" (both metaphors) and "Let the moon go hang" (a metaphor).
Alliteration and Assonance
Alliteration appears in the phrases "start for a second" "deepest demarcation" "spread and sink" and "stone wings have sifted," while assonance appears in the phrases "lights climb" "claws are lost" and "fly their kites."
Irony
This poem contains very little irony—its tone is sincere, direct, and immediate—but there is a hint of irony in the fact that others seem to blame the speaker for her own confusion, even as she tries repeatedly to resolve that confusion.
Genre
Lyric poem
Setting
The work's literal setting is never stated, but it takes place in the metaphorical landscape of an isolated, forbidding mountain.
Tone
distraught, questioning, anxious
Protagonist and Antagonist
The protagonist is the speaker. The antagonist is old age itself, as well as those surrounding the speaker who make her old age difficult.
Major Conflict
The poem's major conflict is the speaker's attempt to reorient herself and affirm her dignity in old age, and, more specifically, her struggle to be told how old she is.
Climax
The poem's climax arrives at its end, when the speaker repeats both of the poem's refrains, announcing more emphatically than ever that she cares only about being told how old she is.
Foreshadowing
N/A
Understatement
N/A
Allusions
The poem contains no direct allusions. However, it was written while Elizabeth Bishop was living in Brazil, and arguably contains references to and inspiration from that country's natural landscape.
Metonymy and Synecdoche
The word "children" appears to be used as synecdoche to refer to younger people more generally.
Personification
"An open book confronts me" is one instance of personification, as is "the valleys stuff / impenetrable mists" and "stars go fly their kites."
Hyperbole
"Nobody tells me anything" and "you never stay long enough" are both instances of hyperbole.
Onomatopoeia
N/A
