One Art by Elizabeth Bishop

1505 Words4 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Themes of elizabeth bishops poems

Elizabeth Bishop’s “One Art” is a retrospective contemplation on how it should be easy to deal with losses. The poem is structured as a villanelle and, as such, has a refrain. The refrain does not change structurally but, it’s meaning changes as the poem progresses. Bishop achieved this mainly through the evolution of imagery in the villanelle which moves from superficial objects to references of places and people that are deeply personal to the speaker. The speaker’s break in her confident façade in the final stanza also contributes to the change in the refrain’s meaning as it reveals how the speaker is not so unaffected by losses. Likewise, the repetition of disaster helps frame the evolution of the refrain’s meaning as the word is used in different contexts. Last but not least, the refrain’s structure and diction allow it the flexibility needed for the meaning to change.
The poem follows the structure of the villanelle very closely. “One Art” has five tercets and one quatrain that have the same two repeating rhymes. The villanelle also requires two refrains that are presented in the first tercet as the first and last line and then are alternately used as the final line of each tercet until the quatrain where they are used as the third and fourth line. In the poem, there is one obvious refrain which is “The art of losing isn’t hard to master” (Bishop, 1). This refrains is fairly consistent throughout the poem. However, Bishop does not strictly adhere to the villanelle structure when dealing with the second refrain. The second refrain is not a typical refrain as in it is not a repeated line but a repeated word. Bishop uses the word “disaster” (Bishop, 3) in the place of a whole entire line (for clarity’s sake during this essay i...

... middle of paper ...

...at the beginning it simply seems to be saying that it is easy to lose things, by the end it is clear that the poem speaks volumes about how loss is not as simple as it seems and it can be extremely difficult to cope with. When the vulnerable and emotional side of the speaker is exposed, the speaker’s statements of it being easy to lose things no longer ring true. Additionally as the imagery becomes more personal it becomes harder for the speaker to deny that their loss is not a disaster and that it does not affect the speaker. Because of this, the refrain becomes more than a comment on the ease of losing things but more the complex emotions that revolved around coping with loss.

Works Cited

"Elizabeth Bishop: Biography" Poetry Foundation. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Mar. 2014 http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/elizabeth-bishop

http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/176996

Show More
Related

  • Essay On Elizabeth Catlett's Art

    2251 Words  | 5 Pages

    The idea that art can be a service to people- most importantly a service to poor and disenfranchised people is one that may be disputed by some. However, Elizabeth Catlett and other artists at the taller de Graffica Popular have proved that art could be made to service the poor. Catlett in particular is someone who has always used her art to advocate for the poor and fight injustices. While her activism and political views were very impactful, they were also very controversial. Catlett`s art and activism influenced African American and Latin American art by changing the narratives of Black and Brown working class women. In their books titled Gumbo Ya Ya, The Art of Elizabeth Catlett, African American Art: The Long Struggle, and Elizabeth Catlett: Works on Paper authors Leslie King-Hammond, Samella S. Lewis, Crystal Britton, Elizabeth Catlett, and Jeanne Zeidler speak of the work of Catlett. In a paper titled -----, ---- also speaks of the work of Elizabeth Catlett and her legacy as an activist.

    Read More

  • Gregory Corso's 'The Whole Mess'

    553 Words  | 2 Pages

    Bishop’s effortless flow of speech while maintaining these patterns of refrains, allows emphasis to be placed on her repeating message: the

    Read More

  • Essay Interpreting "one Art" By Elizabeth Bishop

    369 Words  | 1 Pages

    Since she could not own, much less lose a realm, the speaker seems to be

    Read More

  • Comparing Sea Rose By H. D And Vague Poem By Elizabeth Bishop

    1322 Words  | 3 Pages

    The poems “Sea Rose” by H.D and “Vague Poem” by Elizabeth Bishop were both written by two women who took over the Victorian era. H.D’s works of writing were best known as experimental reflecting the themes of feminism and modernism from 1911-1961. While Bishop’s works possessed themes of longing to belong and grief. Both poems use imagery, which helps to make the poem more concrete for the reader. Using imagery helps to paint a picture with specific images, so we can understand it better and analyze it more. The poems “Sea Rose” and “Vague Poem” both use the metaphor of a rose to represent something that can harm you, even though it has beauty.

    Read More

  • Mastering the Art of Losing in Elizabeth Bishop’s Poem, One Art

    438 Words  | 1 Pages

    Bishop writes with humor and makes tragedy into a parody. Exclamation marks and a clever rhyming scheme helps to create a silly sing- song poem, justifying that losing things mentally and physically has no shame. In this villanelle the rhyme scheme employed is A-B-A, with continual repetition of the words “master” and “ disaster", reinforcing the universal point that:

    Read More

  • ART CRITICISM PAPER

    1079 Words  | 3 Pages

    In the University Of Arizona Museum Of Art, the Pfeiffer Gallery is displaying many art pieces of oil on canvas paintings. These paintings are mostly portraits of people, both famous and not. They are painted by a variety of artists of European decent and American decent between the mid 1700’s and the early 1900’s. The painting by Elizabeth Louise Vigee-Lebrun caught my eye and drew me in to look closely at its composition.

    Read More

  • Hayden Carruth's Monday At The Border

    1044 Words  | 3 Pages

    Although the author wrote “Monday at the River” in conversation with “Saturday at the Border,” she did not maintain the same structure for her poem and particularly omitted the two additional stanzas. The omission of the two stanzas was intentionally done to demonstrate how a villanelle in its standard form should look. The narrator gives instruction to Caarruth’s narrator to ensure him that he too can write a “Proper Villanelle” (Murdakhayeva 19), one that follows the standard structure as opposed to a “Frail Villanelle” (Carruth 18), which deviates from the standard form of a villanelle. Furthermore, he suggests that Carruth’s narrator has the assets needed to write well he just needs the proper

    Read More

  • Martin Espada Bully Summary

    894 Words  | 2 Pages

    This essay is anchored on the goal of looking closer and scrutinizing the said poem. It is divided into subheadings for the discussion of the analysis of each of the poem’s stanzas.

    Read More

  • Loss In "One Art" by Elizabeth Bishop

    675 Words  | 2 Pages

    One Art by Elizabeth Bishop is a poem that explores loss in comparison to an art; however, this art is not one to be envied or sought after to succeed at. Everyone has experienced loss as the art of losing is presented as inevitably simple to master. The speaker’s attitude toward loss becomes gradually more serious as the poem progresses.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of One Art By Elizabeth Bishop

    970 Words  | 2 Pages

    The use of Bishops words at the beginning of the poem refers to her earlier years when she lost her father when she was eight months old, which was not so hard to cope with the loss of her since she was just a baby to know about pain. On the contrary, the conclusion of her poem refers to the last recent loss of her lover Lota de Macedo Soares, which was painful and she has not yet mastered the loss.

    Read More

  • Analysis of Tracy K. Smith´s Life on Mars

    2420 Words  | 5 Pages

    As the first poem in the book it sums up the primary focus of the works in its exploration of loss, grieving, and recovery. The questions posed about the nature of God become recurring themes in the following sections, especially One and Four. The symbolism includes the image of earthly possessions sprawled out like gangly dolls, a reference possibly meant to bring about a sense of nostalgia which this poem does quite well. The final lines cement the message that this is about loss and life, the idea that once something is lost, it can no longer belong to anyone anymore brings a sense...

    Read More

  • The Theme of the Suffering Innocent in Blake's London

    1071 Words  | 3 Pages

    The repetition of the... ... middle of paper ... ... ld of art and literature. Since the "marriage", the parent generation, is already dead or dying, therefore every new creation is now also afflicted with disease and condemned to death. Consequently this means the end of hope for a renewal of society, but since the stanza begins with the word "how", this is also a voice of accusation and a demand for change.

    Read More

  • The Poetry of Elizabeth Bishop, and How it Connects to Her Life

    778 Words  | 2 Pages

    Elizabeth Bishop’s poetry has many characteristics that make it appealing. Her poetry links much with her life; a depressing but interesting one, which saw a troubled childhood, many countries and many awards for her poetry. Her celebrations of the ordinary are another appealing characteristic; an unusual yet original quality. Bishop’s poems have a unique style, with a fine combination of vivid imagery and intense language. In addition to this, we see detailed descriptions of the exotic and familiar.

    Read More

  • Literary Analysis Of Elizabeth Bishop's 'The Unbeliever'

    702 Words  | 2 Pages

    It is clear that Bishop’s “The Unbeliever” is heavily influenced by her poetic idol Moore because it contains elements are inconsistent with Bishop’s work as a whole. History shows that Elizabeth Bishop was not a strict modernist poet, yet in this sample of her early work you can see her imploring strategies more consistent with Moore’s own unique style. The habit of following a strict structure and the habit of carefully sculpting her poems are two of Moore’s distinctive mannerisms. While the shape of “The Unbeliever” does serve a specific purpose, it is interesting to note that this is an uncommon tactic for Bishop. Not only does Moore heavily influence Bishop’s work “The Unbeliever”, but it is clear that the poem is also specifically impacted by Moore’s poem “The Mind is an Enchanting Thing”. Beyond following a strict rigid structure and rhyme scheme, Elizabeth Bishop goes one step further and borrows an image from Moore’s poem. While it could be mere coincidence that both poems use the image of a bird, the way that Bishop writes the gull to “blindly [seat] himself astride” (Bishop, 24), represents a direct allusion to the way Moore’s kiwi walks along the ground as if it was “blind” (Moore, 124).

    Read More

  • Analysis Of A Song Of Despair By Pablo Neruda

    1481 Words  | 3 Pages

    In the poem “A song of Despair” Pablo Neruda chronicles the reminiscence of a love between two characters, with the perspective of the speaker being shown in which the changes in their relationship from once fruitful to a now broken and finished past was shown. From this Neruda attempts to showcase the significance of contrasting imagery to demonstrate the Speaker’s various emotions felt throughout experience. This contrasting imagery specifically develops the reader’s understanding of abandonment, sadness, change, and memory. The significant features Neruda uses to accomplish this include: similes, nautical imagery, floral imagery, and apostrophe.

    Read More

More about One Art by Elizabeth Bishop

Open Document