One Art - Elizabeth Bishop

One Art - Elizabeth Bishop

1. There are two ways to read the poem

   • i. The speaker is lying - she is trying to convince herself but knows she won't recover from the loss.
   • ii. It feels like a disaster but she can eventually recover.

2. Structure

   • Villanelle
     • Has 5 tercets and one quatrain
     • Two rhymes (in this poem -aster, -ent)
     • Two refrains: line 1 becomes line 6, 12 and 18; line 3 becomes line 9, 15, and 19
     • In the end the poem feels forced - she is repeating herself to impose structure on experience of loss.
     • Because of the villanelle, we know the final word will be 'disaster' so creates a sense of inevitability
     • Has idea of two at the heart of its course
   • Losses in poems escalate from keys, to names, to a mother's watch, to a continent (a hyperbole? - so exaggerated we don't believe her) to a loved one.

3. Themes

   • Loss and grief
   • Relationships

4. Voice and tone

   • Begins boldly - narrator sounds self-confident and even fussy as she's instructing us that she has the answers.
   • Reassuring us and trying to be brave at the same time
   • Breaks down in end
     • Addition of 'too' in 'the art of losing's not too hard to master' and repetition of 'like' as she stutters to repeat her mantra appear to be a struggle and denial of truth. She's vulnerable and can't maintain her facade.

5. Language

   • Image of 'two cities' and 'two rivers' could represent her relationship with her partner.
     • Loss of one means the loss of both