Sidelong Glances and Hiding Places in the Poems of Elizabeth Bishop.

This article examines Elizabeth Bishop's final poetry collection, *Geography III* (1976), focusing on the recurring presence of childhood imagery and the child's perspective as a mode of understanding complex adult realities such as history, gender, and colonialism. It highlights the poem "In the Waiting Room," which features a six-year-old narrator's encounter with self-awareness amid adult experiences, and discusses Bishop's stylistic choices, including the poem's newspaper-like format inspired by *National Geographic*. The article also addresses Bishop's factual inaccuracies and racial representations, noting their impact on readers and the poet's own revisions that shifted tones from admiration to horror. Through personal reflections and archival insights, the article situates Bishop's work within themes of memory, identity, and the interplay between private experience and public expression.