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.

"One Art" at a Glance

"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.

Fig. 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

"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.

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,

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.

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.

Fig. 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 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.

Fig. 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,

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.

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.

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:

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:

"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.

Fig. 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.