Lost and Found

In Elizabeth Bishop’s poem "One Art", each stanza ends with the same message until all of the stanzas eventually come together to culminate into what seems to be the climax of the poem. Although at first glance "One Art" seems to be nothing less than a lighthearted piece of advice, it is apparent by the penultimate stanza that Bishop had a much greater overall meaning in mind for her readers to take away from her work. "One Art" is a reflection of Bishop’s personal opinions on the subject of loss and how one should deal with coping and living with loss.

Loss is not a subject that is unfamiliar to Bishop; many of her poems allude to loss of both material positions as well as loved ones. In "One Art" the mention of material positions makes the overall meaning of the poem that much more intense when she goes on to talk about loosing “two cities…a continent,” and “you,” the anonymous main subject of the poem. By juxtaposing material things with humans, Bishop is conveying the message that many people are over dramatic when referring to the human emotion of loss.

Bishop lost her father at a very young age, which caused her mother to have severe mental health issues. It is apparent that "One Art" does not hit too far from home for her, especially in the last stanza when she writes about loosing a loved one. However, it is the way in which Bishop copes with her own lose through the writing of this poem that is the most intriguing; the reader does not get the sense of the standard coping mechanisms of anger and sorrow. Rather, Bishop attempts to have the speaker cover up his or her feelings by comparing the lost of his or her love to things such as a watch. There is a certain sense of bitterness and detachment of feeling in the poem. In addition, the order in which Bishop chooses to names all that has been lost adds a deeper meaning to the message of the poem. She starts by generally stating, “so many things seem filled with the intent to be lost that their loss is no disaster,” and goes on to name losses that can most defiantly be attributed to human error and everyday forgetfulness. As she continues to name what the speaker has lost, the significance of the poem becomes greater and the reader becomes more aware of the emptiness the speaker feels.

"One Art" is an example of a poem using villanelle, a certain form of poetry. Poems written in villanelle form have six stanzas that all rhyme and two lines that are constantly repeated in a specific way (at the beginning and end of certain stanzas). When writing in villanelle form, repetition is a given. Bishop chooses to repeat, “The art of losing isn’t hard to master,” as well as different lines conveying the message that loss is "no disaster." She does this in order to stress that things can be lost so quickly and there is no limit to what one can loose, and that there is no use worrying about what has already been lost or what will be lost in the future. The speaker makes a sad statement about his or her life by implying that the loss of human companionship does not bother him or her.

There are many unanswered questions in One Art, such as whom exactly the last stanza is referring to and why loosing such valuables is “no disaster.” However, the poem itself stands for something greater than those mysteries. It was written to have a profound impact on its readers on the subject of loss and to challenge its reader to see life as the short and valuable amount of time that it is.
(637)