Loss In The Poem 'One Art' By Elizabeth Bishop

Loss is a fundamental part of loss that is inevitable in one’s life. The way we deal with loss helps define one’s character. The poem “One Art” by Elizabeth Bishop is a depiction of how one may cope with loss. Bishop emphasizes how loss is intrinsic in life, and that it is important how we cope with loss. In the poem, the speaker explores the art of loss and coping in order to express how different losses have different impacts on us.

The first stanzas use menial ideas to convince him/herself and the audience that loss is not disaster. The first stanza mentions that “so many things seem filled with the intent / to be lost” (2-3). The speaker gives the insight that many things we have are meant to be lost, so we shouldn’t be stressed over

The speaker changes his tone and diction, saying “even losing you” and “the art of losing’s not too hard to master.” This implies that the loss of a person gave the speaker trouble unlike the material possessions expressed in the preceding stanzas. Additionally, the sixth stanza’s four lines contrast the rest of the poem’s three line structure to draw attention to it and separate it from the rest of the poem. These differences work to give the insight that the loss in the sixth stanza is different from the losses in the rest of the poem. Furthermore, the last line of the sixth stanza separates itself from the rest of the poem’s certainty. It says “though it may look like (Write it!) like disaster.” Even though the speaker has no issue to say the word “disaster” in the preceding stanzas, he/she seems hesitant last line, by repeating the word “like” and interjecting “(Write it!)” in between the two “likes.” When in doubt or in times of uncertainty, many of us overuse the word “like” when we talk, displaying the speaker’s equivocation. This hesitation seems to imply that losing a person is hard to master and it is a disaster, unlike material objects. In the first few stanzas, the speaker implies that he/she lost something dear and is trying to cope. He/she then goes on by trying to convince his/herself that loss is easy