One Art

Can we ever really prepare for loss? Do we become detached from grief the more we lose? Elizabeth Bishop (1911-1979) examines these very questions in her poem "One Art" (1976). The speaker, who considers losing "an art" that one can master, argues that loss is never "a disaster" if you train yourself to become numb to grief. But the irony of the speaker's real struggles belie her argument as she grapples with a loss she can never overcome. 

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Team One Art Teachers

  • 14 minutes reading time
  • Checked by StudySmarter Editorial Team
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    "One Art" at a Glance

    Written By

    Elizabeth Bishop

    Publication Date

    1976

    Form

    Villanelle

    Rhyme Scheme

    ABA ABA ABA ABA ABA ABAA

    Poetic Devices

    Repetition

    Personification

    Symbolism

    Irony

    End Stop

    Enjambment

    Assonance

    Frequently noted imagery

    Lost door keys

    Mother's watch

    Three loved houses

    Two lovely cities

    Two rivers

    A continent

    The joking voice

    Tone

    Instructive and casual, giving way to distressed

    Key themes

    Loss and grief

    The power of love

    Meaning

    Loss is an inevitable aspect of life, but it is one that is impossible to truly prepare and shield yourself from, especially when it comes to the loss of love.

    "One Art" Poem by Elizabeth Bishop

    Much of the content of "One Art" was taken from Bishop's own life. She lost her parents when she was young, then spent the rest of her adolescence bouncing between family members. Without very many ties to home, Bishop spent much of her young adult life traveling to different countries. In 1951, she sailed to Brazil where she had only intended to stay for a few weeks. In the end she stayed for 15 years.

    Bishop fell in love with the country of Brazil and Maria Carlota Costellat de Macedo Soares, known as Lota, a wealthy art collector and landowner in her own right. The two kept their relationship private, as homosexuality was not accepted in Brazil or the United States in the mid-20th century. Eventually, Bishop lost Lota, who committed suicide in 1967. Bishop lost Brazil too as she essentially returned to the United States after her lover's death.

    One Art, Flag of Brazil shaped like the borders of Brazil, StudySmarterFig. 1 - "One Art" was inspired by the loss Bishop experienced in her own life, from her parents and her lover to the country of Brazil.

    "One Art" Poem

    The art of losing isn’t hard to master;so many things seem filled with the intentto be lost that their loss is no disaster.Lose something every day. Accept the flusterof 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 meantto travel. None of these will bring disaster.I lost my mother’s watch. And look! my last, ornext-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 gestureI love) I shan’t have lied. It’s evidentthe art of losing’s not too hard to masterthough it may look like (Write it!) like disaster."

    "One Art" Summary

    The speaker begins by making the claim that "The art of losing isn’t hard to master" (1). Things seem to want to be lost, so their absence isn't a big deal. People lose little things every day like keys and hours. It's easy to get used to the feeling of small loss. The speaker urges us to see if we can cope with the loss of more important things, like places and names. She lost her mother's watch and a house she loved deeply, but she was able to deal with losing those sentimental things. The extent of the speaker's loss expands to encompass cities, rivers, realms, and entire continents. Although she misses them, it "wasn't a disaster" (15).

    Finally, her resolve is shaken as she considers losing the person she loves. She tries to convince herself that, like everything else, losing her beloved wouldn't be a disaster. But the use of parentheses reveals that she's only been lying to herself.

    "One Art" Literary Devices

    Although the poem is seemingly simple, Bishop uses several literary devices to reveal its true depth. She employs repetition, symbolism, and personification to develop the irony of the poem and reveal that the speaker might not be as unaffected and dispassionate as she appears. "One Art" is a villanelle. The main literary devices can be found in the refrains, which are characteristic of villanelles.

    The villanelle form consists of nineteen lines, five tercets (3 lined stanzas) followed by one quatrain (a 4 lined stanza).

    The interesting thing about villanelles is that there are two refrains, or repeated lines of poetry, that first appear in the first stanza and then repeat in succeeding stanzas. In this case, the lines "The art of losing isn’t hard to master;" (1) and variations of "their loss is no disaster" (3) alternate in each stanza.

    The set structure of the villanelle form might also reflect the speaker's desire for control. She wishes to be indifferent to loss, but she still feels it deeply.

    Repetition and Personification

    As a villanelle, repetition is an inherent component in "One Art." The first and third line of the first stanza repeat throughout the poem. They first appear in conjunction with one another and later shift to contradict one another.

    Consider the first stanza when the speaker says,

    The art of losing isn’t hard to master;so many things seem filled with the intentto be lost that their loss is no disaster." (1-3)

    When loss is a part of everyday life, it becomes ordinary and unremarkable. This coincides with the idea that loss isn't a "disaster" (3). Loss isn't serious because it's commonplace.

    This stanza also presents the only use of personification in the poem. The lost things themselves seem to want to be lost. So the grief and burden of losing things isn't placed solely on the person who experiences loss. Instead, the weight is lifted because the lost objects have agency and choose to hide from the speaker. The speaker essentially places the blame on the victim (the lost things) and absolves the person who did the losing of their guilt.

    Personification: attributing human qualities (characteristics, emotions, and behaviors) to nonhuman things

    The speaker copes by distancing herself from her loss. She repeats the ideas that losing is easy and loss isn't a disaster. Simultaneously, she builds the emotional impact that loss has. She continually relies on distancing herself in order to cope, but her resolve shakes the more abstract and emotional the losses become.

    One Art, Girl Letting Go of Heart Balloon, StudySmarterFig. 2 - The speaker relies on distancing herself from her feelings of loss in order to cope.

    The refrains vary slightly as the speaker's detachment from loss gives way to her true feelings of mourning. When she talks about the places that she has lost, the speaker repeats the idea that the loss wasn't a disaster, but she admits that she feels emotional pain. She says, "I miss them, but it wasn’t a disaster" (15).

    And in the final stanza of the poem, the speaker admits that coping with loss is not as easy as she first made it out to be. She adds the word "too" into the usual repetition. She says, "the art of losing’s not too hard to master" (18). This single variation belies how much she is actually wavering in her original assertion. Her reaction to loss changes throughout the poem, even as she pretends to stand firm in her original assertions.

    Irony

    "One Art" is a deeply ironic poem. The more the speaker argues that she is immune to loss, the more apparent her true pain becomes. In the last stanza, the speaker reaches her ultimate assertion: if one can master the art of loss, losing love will not be difficult or emotionally catastrophic. But even as the speaker makes these arguments, it is clear that she does not believe them herself. She says,

    the art of losing’s not too hard to master

    though it may look like (Write it!) like disaster." (18-19)

    The speaker has to force herself to finish the poem. She continues to argue that loss isn't a disaster, even as she struggles to overcome her own. She undermines her entire argument, as she herself is clearly not a master of the art of loss. The irony of her grief belies her argument that loss is mundane and manageable.

    Irony: a situation in which there is a contrast between what the reader or a character expects and what actually happens

    One Art, Woman writing in a notebook, StudySmarterFig. 3 - The speaker forcing herself to write that loss isn't a disaster is ironic because it shows how deeply she truly experiences loss.

    Symbolism

    The speaker uses symbols in order to increase the emotional stakes inherent in loss. She says,

    I lost my mother’s watch. And look! my last, ornext-to-last, of three loved houses went." (10-11)

    Watches and clocks are generally symbolic of time. Her mother's watch likely represents the relationship she had with her mother as a child. The speaker's childhood and innocence has been lost and, we can assume, her relationship with her mother is gone as well. Either through death or distance, the speaker and her mother don't have the same relationship they once did. The watch is much more than a physical object. It holds great emotional meaning to the speaker.

    So too do the houses, which the speaker describes as "loved" (11). The houses symbolize family and protection. Homes are intimate, personal spaces that one generally shares only with loved ones. Losing three houses is an emotional blow and has emotional significance, even if the speaker claims it does not.

    Symbolism: one person/place/thing is a symbol for, or represents, some greater value/idea.

    End-Stopped Lines and Enjambment

    The tension between the poem's end-stopped lines and enjambment mirrors the tension between the speaker's claims and her true emotions. There is an even mix of punctuated end-stopped lines and enjambed ones.

    Enjambment: the continuation of a sentence after the line breaks

    End-stopped: a pause at the end of a line of poetry, using punctuation (typically "." "," ":" or ";")

    The end-stopped lines reflect the speaker's apparent matter-of-fact approach to loss. Consider stanza 5, in which each line is end stopped:

    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." (13-15)

    The end stop is very blunt and emotionless, as the speaker reveals her losses as casually as if they were items on a grocery list.

    The enjambment, on the other hand, is more free flowing and boundless. The enjambed lines reveal her true feelings, which cannot be restricted by her insistence that they should be. The final stanza consists entirely of enjambment:

    —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." (16-19)

    Read the poem aloud. Do you notice any other poetic devices? What effect do they have on the poem?

    "One Art" Themes

    The main themes in "One Art" are loss and grief and the power of love.

    Loss and Grief

    The poem is dominated by the theme of loss and grief. The speaker has convinced herself that after so much loss she no longer feels the sting of grief. She claims it's easy to become numb to loss and encourages everyone to try.

    But the speaker's assertions are based on false analogies. She argues that if people can handle losing an hour of their day or their keys then they should be able to cope with the emotional loss of losing a house or a loved one. The speaker's views on loss are reductive, as not all loss is equal. At the end of the poem, she comes to this realization on her own when she can't overcome the loss of her loved one. She essentially disproves her own argument, implying that one cannot heal from loss without also experiencing some form of grief.

    The Power of Love

    The one loss the speaker feels is insurmountable is the loss of love. Its power is depicted as the speaker builds the emotional tension as the poem progresses. The loss reaches its apex when the speaker considers love in the final stanza. The loss of the speaker's connection to her mother, her homes, her car keys, and entire cities means nothing when compared to love. She is able to endure the loss of everything else, but not love.

    Love is ultimately the force that makes the speaker's relationship to loss waver. She calls loss an art form that can be easily mastered. However, in the last stanza it seems as though loss has mastered her instead of the other way around.

    There are two parts of the speaker that battle for control: on one hand there is the emotional, human part. She feels loss deeply because she has emotional connections to people, places, and objects. On the other hand, there is the distant, numb part controlled by loss which has demanded that she bears pain without complaint. In the end, love reminds her of her connection to the very human feeling of pain. Secretly, she realizes she is far from numb to loss.

    One Art, Man buried under rocks, StudySmarterFig. 4 - The speaker claims she has mastered the art of losing but in reality she feels crushed by loss.

    "One Art" Meaning

    "One Art" essentially considers whether it's possible to be indifferent to losses in our own lives. Part of being alive is contending with constant loss. It could be small things like a runaway penny or a misplaced phone. Or the loss could be incredibly significant like the death of a loved one or a home burning down.

    There are also aspects of loss that occur every single day: we age, we pay taxes, we sleep, and we work. As a whole, people are constantly losing time, money, and their youth. So if loss is all around us, then why are we still so affected by it?

    From the speaker's own concession, we see that not all losses are the same. Loss is an inevitable aspect of life, but it is one that is impossible to truly prepare and shield yourself from, especially a loss of love.

    One Art - Key takeaways

    • "One Art" was written by Elizabeth Bishop.
    • It was published in her final poetry collection, Geography III, in 1976.
    • "One Art" is an ironic poem, as the more the speaker argues that loss in an art form the more she seems to break down under the burden of loss.
    • The main themes are loss and grief and the power of love.
    • The message is that loss is an inevitable aspect of life, but it is one that is impossible to truly prepare and shield yourself from.
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    One Art
    Frequently Asked Questions about One Art

    What does the title "One Art" mean?

    "One Art" combines all of the facets of coping with loss: the art of losing, the art of coping, and the art of writing in order to come to terms with that loss. 

    What is the message of "One Art" by Elizabeth bishop?

    The message is that loss is an inevitable aspect of life, but it is one that is impossible to truly prepare and shield yourself from. 

    What is the main theme of the poem "One Art"?

    The main theme is grief and loss. 

    What is the form of "One Art"?

    "One Art" is a villanelle. 

    What is the irony in the poem "One Art"?

    The irony is that the more the speaker asserts that she has mastered the art of losing, the more apparent it is that she's actually struggling with loss and has, in fact, not overcome it. 

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    StudySmarter Editorial Team

    Team English Literature Teachers

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    • Checked by StudySmarter Editorial Team
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