Elizabeth Bishop

"One Art"

This rather nihilistic poem reminds me of something written by Plath or Sexton because of its ambivalent detachment.  It speaks of a surrender to depression after a long struggle.  Bishop speaks of losing her keys, her houses, her mother's watch and of loosing her lover, of loosing everything as if loosing were an art form that the author has mastered.  The poem consists of six stanzas of three lines each and a simple rhyme scheme of A-B-A, A-B-A.  Bishop explains that "so many things seem filled with intent / to be lost that their loss is no disaster." (lines 2-3).  The speaker advises her audience to practice loosing and to "accept the fluster" of things lost.  Life is a series of gains and losses but the losses are far more inevitable than the gains.  This poem reminds us of this and its message can be interpreted as sad and nihilistic or as resolute and realistic.  In the last stanza the author forces herself to declare to that loosing her lover has not been a disaster:  "It's evident / the art of losing's not hard to master / though it may look like (Write it!) like disaster."  (lines 17-18).  This rhetorical strategy gives some insight into the mind of the speaker who is not completely resolute and is not completely content with the inevitability of loss.  Loss has become like a fact of life for Bishop but it's still a hard pill to swallow.