Blog #5 Erin Holbrook

One Art

BY 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.

The Rhyme Scheme of this poem is aba, aba, and so on until the last stanza: abaa. Though rhyming "or" with "master" is pushing it, it is obvious to see that the writer intended to add something to the poem by using only two distinct end-rhyme sounds. The simple rhyme scheme gives a sense of continuity and order to the poem. The order contrasts the topic of the poem: the chaos/ "disaster" that is associated with loss. This matches the overall style of the poem. Bishop portrays "the art of loosing", typically a negative idea associated with stress and difficult times, as a graceful art that you strive for. She describes it almost as if it were a hobby to take up. Like practicing a piano, she says to "loose something everyday" as you work to master the art. The rhyme scheme and diction work together to create a sense of grace, order, and contentment. The message seems to be that the real "art of loosing" is the ability to maintain your sense of order in the face of frustrating losses. It may be your house keys. It may be your house. "Accept the fluster", and realize that "their loss is no disaster."

Elizabeth Bishop, “One Art” from The Complete Poems 1926-1979. Copyright © 1979, 1983 by Alice Helen Methfessel. Reprinted with the permission of Farrar, Straus & Giroux, LLC.