One Art
Elizabeth Bishop
The art of losing isn't hard to master;
so many things seem filled with the intent
to be lost that their loss is no disaster.
Lose something every day. Accept the fluster
of lost door keys, the hour badly spent.
The art of losing isn't hard to master.
Then practice losing farther, losing faster:
places, and names, and where it was you meant
to travel. None of these will bring disaster.
I lost my mother's watch. And look! my last, or
next-to-last, of three loved houses went.
The art of losing isn't hard to master.
I lost two cities, lovely ones. And, vaster,
some realms I owned, two rivers, a continent.
I miss them, but it wasn't a disaster.
--Even losing you (the joking voice, a gesture
I love) I shan't have lied. It's evident
the art of losing's not too hard to master
though it may look like (Write it!) like disaster.
From The Complete Poems 1927-1979 by Elizabeth Bishop, published by Farrar, Straus & Giroux, Inc. Copyright © 1979, 1983 by Alice Helen Methfessel.
Matt Butcher
English 640
April 6, 2005
The Villanelle in Bishop’s “One Art”
The villanelle is a poetic form that reprocesses many of the same words, challenging the common notion that all poems have to rhyme on a deeper level. Reusing the same words can tend to get stale, especially in an art form that prides itself on finding the right word for every situation, so the reutilization of these words must have a deeper meaning. Elizabeth Bishop’s entry into this category is “One Art.”
“One Art” tells the story of loss. A short biography of the poet expresses a life that is filled with the loss of loved ones and moving from place to place because of it. This recurring theme is showcasing how she becomes inured to the loss of these loved ones, something she has to experience again and again. The villanelle seems an ultimate expression of this reliving the same nightmare over and over.
The villanelle repeats a certain pattern of words and lines. In this regard, the choice of those words to a poet must be extraordinary. The majority of Bishop’s choices are words like “loss,” “disaster,” and “losing.” It must be important to choose the word form of “loss” and use it repeatedly, even in a present tense form of “losing,” indicating that she doesn’t think these events are over, that this cycle will repeat as it has done so often in her tumultuous past. The villanelle is perfect in that regard.
In another regard, the textbook expresses that the villanelle “…form refuses to tell a story. It circles around and around, refusing to go forward in any kind of linear development, and so suggesting at the deepest level, powerful recurrences of mood and emotion and memory” (8). Bishop keeps circling because on that inner level she is trying to talk herself into these events not being the “disaster” that they are to her life. On a conscious level, Bishop is aware that she must get over these events in order to move on with her life. On the subconscious level, she doesn’t believe it, and has to reiterate the same message to herself over and over, as the events that spawn these messages happen over and over. It is cyclical in the respect that the harsh events of her life recurring over and over will not let her move on into a linear development because she is afraid of it happening again, much like the form of the poem refuses to let her move on.
Bishop’s “One Art” is an argument within the author. Like many people, the author is losing this argument with herself.
Works cited:The villanelle is a poetic form that reprocesses many of the same words, challenging the common notion that all poems have to rhyme on a deeper level. Reusing the same words can tend to get stale, especially in an art form that prides itself on finding the right word for every situation, so the reutilization of these words must have a deeper meaning. Elizabeth Bishop’s entry into this category is “One Art.”
“One Art” tells the story of loss. A short biography of the poet expresses a life that is filled with the loss of loved ones and moving from place to place because of it. This recurring theme is showcasing how she becomes inured to the loss of these loved ones, something she has to experience again and again. The villanelle seems an ultimate expression of this reliving the same nightmare over and over.
The villanelle repeats a certain pattern of words and lines. In this regard, the choice of those words to a poet must be extraordinary. The majority of Bishop’s choices are words like “loss,” “disaster,” and “losing.” It must be important to choose the word form of “loss” and use it repeatedly, even in a present tense form of “losing,” indicating that she doesn’t think these events are over, that this cycle will repeat as it has done so often in her tumultuous past. The villanelle is perfect in that regard.
In another regard, the textbook expresses that the villanelle “…form refuses to tell a story. It circles around and around, refusing to go forward in any kind of linear development, and so suggesting at the deepest level, powerful recurrences of mood and emotion and memory” (8). Bishop keeps circling because on that inner level she is trying to talk herself into these events not being the “disaster” that they are to her life. On a conscious level, Bishop is aware that she must get over these events in order to move on with her life. On the subconscious level, she doesn’t believe it, and has to reiterate the same message to herself over and over, as the events that spawn these messages happen over and over. It is cyclical in the respect that the harsh events of her life recurring over and over will not let her move on into a linear development because she is afraid of it happening again, much like the form of the poem refuses to let her move on.
Bishop’s “One Art” is an argument within the author. Like many people, the author is losing this argument with herself.
Strand, Mark and Eavan Boland, eds. The Making of a Poem: A Norton Anthology of Poetic Forms. New York: W.W. Norton. 2000
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