Loss In The Poem 'One Art' By Elizabeth Bishop

In the poem “One Art” by Elizabeth Bishop, it is evident that the speaker has experienced much loss. Through diction, syntax, and verse form, the relation between the speaker’s attitudes toward loss in lines 1-15 and lines 16-19 can be clearly seen as the poem progresses from the different losses of things, places, and lastly “you,” her lover (16). Both attitudes admit that “the art of losing” can be mastered, however, they have different ideas on whether a loss is disastrous or not. In lines 1-15, the speaker portrays a nonchalant attitude when sharing her different losses of things and places, repeating that “the art of losing isn’t hard to master.” Throughout these first five stanzas, the speaker often repeats herself in attempt to convince