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Michelle Launi

AP Literature

Poetry Explication

6 March 2017

Explication of One Art

In Elizabeth Bishops poem One Art the art of losing and the emotions that we all

associate with loss are documented. Bishop describes loss as no disaster and attempts to prove

this statement through examples like lost door keys, lost places, and names, and even the

loss of a person she loved. She reminds us of the pain that loss can bring and forces us to

recollect a time when we also had an hour badly spent while searching for door keys or the

panic we felt after losing our mothers watch. Bishop establishes her audience as those who

are looking for a way to cope with loss, and want to earn the art she has established. It is thought

that One Art was inspired by Bishops struggle with alcoholism and the resulting loss of the

important things in her life, and perhaps the loss of a loved one. One Art serves to examine the

constant nature of losing someone or something; an emotion that Bishop was no stranger to and

is apparent through her perspective as the speaker. Consequently, Bishop illustrates her

perspective on loss through repetition, elegant and resigned diction, and the juxtaposition of the

loss of inanimate objects with a person.

While reading One Art it is impossible to ignore the repetition of two lines: the art of

losing isnt hard to master and some form of none of these will bring disaster. Bishop does

not conceal the repetition or the villanelle verse form of her poem. She simply uses it to create

the greatest impact on her audience. The repetition of these lines serves a purpose, it constantly
makes light of the nature of loss. It describes it as easy and an everyday event, which it is, but

we all have a difficult time of accepting. If we accept that the loss is a constant and every

present side effect of life we will be stuck with a dark cloud looming over our heads. However,

Bishop manages to describe loss as simply an art we all need to master. This repetition

establishes her theme of the ever present nature of loss and its constant nature in our lives.

Bishop was faced with loss throughout her most of her childhood and adulthood, she understood

the complex nature associated with the loss of someone important. However, that much loss can

also drive people to do whatever possible in an attempt to forget. Therefore, the lines the art of

losings not too hard to master/though it may look like (write it!) like disaster (18-19) serve to

express how she copes with the emotions of loss and how we should each attempt to not take loss

as a disaster forever because nothing in this life is eternal. She reminds the reader through these

lines that loss is a constant fact of life regardless of how we cope, master the art of losing or

see it like disaster.

Bishop employs both elegant and resigned diction throughout this poem. Her word

choice establishes her resigned and melancholy tone towards loss and the retrospective qualities

of her comparisons. Bishop describes the disaster that is loss and the practice [of] losing

farther, losing faster, and her word choice establishes her personal emotions towards loss. She

may encourage each of us to practice losing to become acquainted with the nature of loss and

how none of these will bring disaster, but her diction shows the other side of the story. Words

like fluster, badly, farther, faster, and disaster all remind us of the pain that is associated with

loss on a daily basis. Bishop reminds us, through her diction, that loss is eternal and will never

fade even when it is no disaster. She reminds us that loss is a daily event that everyone carries.

One Art is filled with strategies to cope and to escape what may look [and feel like] a
disaster. Therefore, Bishop uses the elegant and resigned quality of her diction to establish the

melancholy and resigned tone of One Art, which illustrates the present theme; loss is an eternal

and constant part of life that will remain with each of, but we also have the power to overcome

its nature, to not let it become a disaster in our lives.

Loss has the power to have an impact on each of our lives, but it is often viewed on a

spectrum. The loss of ones car keys is never acknowledge with as more important than the loss

of a loved one. However, Bishop does not allow her poem to conform to those conceptions. She

instead, juxtaposes the loss of what we deem insignificant items with the loss of people, a home,

and a place of belonging. Bishop first describes a loss we all associate with, the loss door keys

and an hour badly spent. She then progresses to encourage each of us to practice losing

places, and names, and where it was you meant/to travel (8-9). We all can relate to forgetting

and to losing objects like our keys, but Bishop creates the greatest impact in the poem when she

juxtaposes that feeling of loss with the loss of two cities, lovely ones. And vaster,/ some realms

I owned, two rivers, a continent (13-14) and the loss of someone she loved with the loss of

house keys. This juxtaposition makes the difference between the different types of loss clear, but

also illuminates the theme that Bishop carries throughout One Art; that loss is a painful

challenge, that we all must cope with its eternal existence, and its eternal nature may not always

be a disaster. The juxtaposition of insignificant and significant losses establishes the idea that

coping with loss is a struggle and an ever changing battle because it is different depending upon

what is lost. It also serves to describe that no matter how much we love something or someone it

will not last forever, and the only sure part of life is the constant battle we will face with loss.

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