ONE ART

Elizabeth Bishop’s ‘One Art’ is a poem whose apparent detached

simplicity is undermined by its rigid villanelle structure and mounting
emotional tension. Perhaps her most well-known poem, it centers around
the theme of loss and the way in which the speaker– and, by extension,
the reader – deals with it. Here, Bishop converts losing into an art form
and explores how, by potentially mastering this skill, we may distance
ourselves from the pain of loss. At eight months old, Elizabeth Bishop
lost her father, her mother then succumbed to mental illness and she later
lost her lover to suicide. Therefore, we may see this poem as in part
autobiographical. In it, the poet presents a list of things we may lose in
life, increasing in importance, until the final culmination in the loss of a
loved one.1

This is a crafted poem with simple language and mostly full end rhymes
such as master/disaster, fluster/master, last or/master,
gesture/master/disaster. There is the occasional half rhyme. The author
has used repetition of the word "disaster": The repetition illustrates how
although Bishop tries to makes it appear that losing things is not a big
deal, it ultimately does lead to emotional distress. And her repetition of
the phrase, “The art of losing isn’t hard to master” serves to validate her
thought process throughout the poem and convince herself that losing
becomes easier with time and practice.

Repetition—the use of the same term several times—is one of the

crucial elements in poetry. “Repetition in word and phrase and in idea is
the very essence of poetry,” Theodore Roethke writes in “Some
Remarks on Rhythm” (1960). It is one of the most marked features of all
poetry, oral and written, one of the primary ways we distinguish poetry
itself. Repetition, as in rhyme, is a strong mnemonic device. Oral poets
1
https://poemanalysis.com/elizabeth-Bishop/one-art/
especially use it for remembering structures. The incantatory magic of
poetry—think of spells and chants, of children’s rhymes and lullabies—
has something to do with recurrence, with things coming back to us in
time, sometimes in the same way, sometimes differently. Repetition is
the primary way of creating a pattern through rhythm. Meaning accrues
through repetition. One of the deep fundamentals of poetry is the
recurrence of sounds, syllables, words, phrases, lines, and stanzas.
Repetition can be one of the most intoxicating features of poetry. It
creates expectations, which can be fulfilled or frustrated. It can create a
sense of boredom and complacency, but it can also incite enchantment
and inspire bliss.2 In this poem this sound device is used to create a
feeling of validation that the author tries to persuade her own self that
mastering the art of losses is not difficult but on the contrary the
repetition of the word disaster expresses the feeling that although this art
of loss isn’t difficult to master, it still results in disaster. The repetition
here can also allude to the face that disaster is not just in one form. The
author, Elizabeth Bishop has lost so much that it has resulted in the
destruction of her family, her life, her peace, her mental stability, her
health and so much more.

Another sound device used in this poem is Assonance. Assonance is the

repetition of vowel sounds in the same line such as the sound of /o/
and /a/ in “the art of losing’s not too hard to master”. The chief function
of assonance in poetry is to create rhythm. It guides which syllables
should be stressed. This rhythm-making has a flow-on effect. It helps
to embed a set of words within the mind of whoever is hearing them.
3
Assonance can also help to build a mood. Long vowel sounds are said
to slow down a segment of writing, making it more somber, and the
“oo” sound in particular can be quite gloomy. For example, the sound
of /o/ in the line the art of losing’s not too hard to master. This helps in
creating the gloomy effect, that the author is so depressed that her life
is destroyed, but still she is trying to console herself by repeating this
2
https://poets.org/glossary/repetition
3
https://www.masterclass.com/articles/poetry-101-what-is-assonance-in-poetry-assonance-definition-with-
examples#how-is-assonance-used-in-poetry
line and by using the /oo/ assonance sound she kindles the emotion of
sadness and gloom. She instills in the reader that loss results in
destruction along with consolidating the reader that it is not difficult to
manage it.

She also uses Alliteration in this poem. Alliteration is the repetition of

consonant sounds in the same line such as the sound of /l/ and /f/ in
“Then practice losing farther, losing faster”.4 The alliteration creates a
rhythm that is hard and fast, carrying the text forward. Alliteration can
help set the pace of a piece, speeding it up or slowing it down depending
on what sounds are used, how many words are included in the
alliterative series, and what other literary devices are used. We can say
that the alliteration here speeds up the pace of the sentence and implies
the meaning that is expressed in the line itself that so swiftly the author
lost everything good in her life, hence, we can say that alliteration here
is enforcing the idea that is presented in the words alliteration is used.

Sound devices help readers develop strong visual images, reinforcing the
mood and tone of the literary piece. The goal is to use sound devices to
evoke an emotional response in readers. Poets typically stress specific
syllables, known as accents, to emphasize particular sounds and create a
powerful rhythm. Elizabeth Bishop in this poem has successfully
enforced her ideas about loss and how it is important to manage oneself
and master the skill of handling emotions through the losses.

4
https://literarydevices.net/one-art/