Coping

In Elizabeth Bishop’s poem “One Art,” the author attempts to convince herself that the art of losing can be mastered, which eventually contrary to her original goal, leads to an acceptance of her disaster. We all have different ways of dealing with loss and grief but this poem offers insight into one person’s dealings with grief. “One Art” is Elizabeth Bishop’s response to the question of how to cope.

The poem is an emotional progression. Elizabeth builds upon examples where she has been able to cope. This poem lists in consequential the things that are most important to the speaker just as Natasha Tretheway does in her poem “White Lies.” She begins with daily losses, the door keys. Each one of us has experiences the exasperated search for lost keys. It is annoying but bearable. Next she moves on to names and places, things that are more personal. She still could cope. The author builds her confidence as she lists things she was able to overcome. She does this in order to be able to list the one thing she feels is destroying her.

Originally, I felt that the last stanza was an afterthought, an unexpected aside because of the dash’ however, I was wrong. The last refrain is the most significant; it is pitted against the majority of the poem to the left of the dash. The last refrain is more personal. Twice the author uses parenthesis to insert intimate comments: a memorable characteristics of her lover “the joking voice, a gesture I love,” and note to herself “Write it!” The last stanza is also a shift in subject. The first part of the poem is reflective where as in the last stanza the poem gains an audience, a “you.” It is in the last stanza the author attempts to overcome the loss of her lover and it is here she falters.

“One Art” is written in the villanelle style. A villanelle consists of nineteen lines with a repeating refrain. “One Art” follows this pattern… mostly. The poem has nineteen lines and a repeating refrain but Bishops slightly shifts the last refrain. Her changes to the traditional villanelle style emphasize the poem’s emotional shift in the last refrain. Instead of repeating the line,” The art of losing isn’t hard to master,” she utters, “The art of losing isn’t too hard to master.” In the culmination of her attempt to defend herself from grief, she realizes that this overwhelming feeling truly is a disaster. The last line symbolizes her final acceptance of the grief when she instructs herself to (“Write it!”). This directive aimed at the author herself leaves me with a burning image of the two words like disaster.

It is as if she is forcing herself to accept the reality of situation even after she spent the remainder of the poem attempting to convince herself that she would okay, that she could overcome her loss. As someone who is clearly experienced in the art of losing, as demonstrated by her long list, she cannot master loss this time, losing anything and everything does not compare with the loss of her lover. Through writing she discovers this. What began as a way of defensive coping turned into acceptance. By writing the two words like disaster, the author knows them to be true. It is because of these two words that the poem feels genuine and true. The author engages the readers very intimately by allowing them a glimpse into her own life. She makes us believe that contrary to the repeated refrain during the first few lines of poem, the art of losing is hard to master. So the question is, is losing ever easy?