One Art (Poem by Elizabeth Bishop)

Elizabeth Bishop was born in 1911 in Worcester, Massachusetts. Her father passed away when she was just 8 months old, after which her mother became psychologically ill, hence institutionalised when she was 5 years old. She has received several awards including the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1956.

One Art is an autobiographical poem which was published in 1976. In this poem, Elizabeth Bishop tries to present “losing” as art. She says that the loss of different things and people hurt us momentarily, but towards the end we get a collection of experiences. The loss described in this poem ranges from a bunch of keys, time and watch to loved ones. The intensity of the loss is different. She starts with less important things and moves on to more significant ones.

The poem is a villanelle, thus consists of 19 lines. The first line repeats as the last line of 2^nd & 4^th stanza; Third line repeats as last line of the 3^rd, 5^th & 6^th stanza;Opening line & third line of the 1^st stanza becomes the last 2 lines of the final quatrain.

The first stanza begins with losing as an art and the poet claims that certain things are meant to get lost. It is natural that we lose something every day, ending up with confusion and loss of time.

In the third stanza, she describes that she lost things faster than expected. She says that she had to lose names and places; still it was not a disaster. After her father passed away and her mother was institutionalized, Elizabeth Bishop stayed in Nova Scotia with her maternal grandparents. Then she was taken back to Worcester by her father’s relatives. She loved her grandparents and hence her shift back to Worcester from Nova Scotia can be considered a loss.

In the fourth stanza, she tells about the loss of mother’s watch. This is a symbol for the relationship with her mother. Following this, she claims to have lost her houses. The poet owned houses in Key West, Petrópolis, and Ouro Prêto and she had to sell them. Even the loss of these houses does not seem to be a disaster to her.

Next, in the fifth stanza, she describes the loss of two lovely cities, rivers and even a continent. This once again refers to her movement from place to place. For some part of her life, she lived in Brazil and had to leave. She does not consider the loss of these many emotionally important places, a disaster.

In the final stanza, the poet’s casual joking ironical tone disappears for a moment when she tells about the loss of a loved one, presumably Lota de Macedo Soares or Alice Methfessel whom she loved. She ends the poem by repeating the theme that it is not hard to master the art of losing, despite the loss looking like a disaster.