One Art Analysis
Elizabeth Bishop was born on February 8, 1911 in Worcester, Massachusetts. Bishop barely knew her parents because her father died of Bright’s disease only eight months after she was born. Her mother was never able to cope with the death of her husband, and had a nervous breakdown, eventually going insane. She was removed to a sanatorium when Bishop was just five years old (David).
Most of her early years were spent with relatives, who she said took care of her because they felt sorry for her. Later on, she was removed from her carefree childhood home where she lived with her grandparents in the town of Great Village, Nova Scotia. Bishop did not like living at the wealthy Bishop residence in Worcester, and wanted to move to Canada, a place …show more content…
she loved dearly (“Bishop”).
Bishop lived in many places, such as Mexico, France, and England, eventually growing older in Brazil. During college, Bishop had big dreams of becoming a music composer, but a fear of doing public performances made her abandon that dream. Some of her best friends came from college, such as Muriel Rukeyser, Eleanor Clark, and Mary McCarthy (David).
However, it was Marianne Moore who had the greatest impact on her. Bishop met Moore through the college librarian, Fanny Borden. Moore eventually helped Bishop abandon her plans of studying medicine and to work on poetry instead. The two poets became great friends after an interview in the New York Public Library (Unterecker).
Bishop temporarily settled as an undergraduate at Vassar College in the early 1930’s. Bishop lived by a quote from Annie Dillard that states, “Geography is the key, the crucial accident of birth.” Bishop always tried to incorporate geography into her poems. Besides Moore, Bishop credited George Herbert and Wallace Stevens as being important influences on her (“Elizabeth”).
Bishop received many awards during her career. A Cold Spring received the Pulitzer Prize in 1956. She also received the National Book Award for The Complete Poems in 1970, and the National Book Critics Circle Award for Geography III in 1977 (David).
Bishop's life was not always full of happiness, however. On September 19, 1967, her lover, Lota de Macedo Soares, took an overdose of tranquilizers while visiting Bishop in New York. It is said that a failing relationship with Bishop and problems with work pushed her over the edge, and she died several days later. After Soares’s death, Bishop wrote to a longtime friend, Robert Lowell. “I miss her more everyday of my life. It is like my early days. I lost my mother, and Lota, and others, too,” Bishop wrote (“Bishop”).
Bishop would go on to take that painful moment, as well as other painful and losing moments, and would write one of her most famous poems in her career, “One Art”. In “One Art”, Bishop states that losing things in an art, and that losing things in life is an art that is not hard at all to master. The poem shows people that, while one may become an expert in the art of losing, they
will find themselves in the process, which Bishop says that is the true meaning of life (“Elizabeth”).
Elizabeth Bishop died in her apartment in Lewis Wharf, Boston on October 6, 1979 of a ruptured cerebral aneurysm. She was 68 years old. After her death, the Elizabeth Bishop house, an artist’s retreat in Great Village, Nova Scotia, was dedicated in her memory.
The art of losing isn’t hard to master; so many things seem filled with the intent to be lost that their loss is no disaster.
Lose something every day. Accept the fluster of lost door keys, the hour badly spent.
The art of losing isn’t hard to master.
Then practice losing farther, losing faster: places, and names, and where it was you meant to travel. None of these will bring disaster.
I lost my mother’s watch. And look! my last, or next-to-last, of three loved houses went.
The art of losing isn’t hard to master.
I lost two cities, lovely ones. And, vaster, some realms I owned, two rivers, a continent.
I miss them, but it wasn’t a disaster.
—Even losing you (the joking voice, a gesture
I love) I shan’t have lied. It’s evident the art of losing’s not too hard to master though it may look like (Write it!) like disaster.
In Elizabeth Bishop’s poem “One Art”, the title itself brings to mind images of how Earth and life combine to make one art.
The word “One”, suggests a singular entity and the word “Art”, adds to the feeling of beauty. A reader would expect a poem entitled “One Art” to be about the wholesomeness of life, and in this case the reader’s expectations would be met with surprise.
The poem tells the story of Elizabeth Bishop’s life. Each stanza in the poem represents something she lost. She tries to say that things are meant to be lost, and there is no disaster in losing things,but when she loses her home, parents, and lover, she realized losing loved ones results in disaster.
Bishop has created a tone of sadness through the use of specific words and phrases. “Loss” implies the uncertainty of what to do next. The word “art” is used multiple times to say that losing is an art that is not hard to master.
The tone of inevitability is maintained throughout the poem until the last stanza when it shifts to a feeling of true loss. At that point, the reader begins to see a different attitude toward losing. She started off thinking that losing was just an art until she started losing things closer to her, and realized losing was not an art, but a
curse.
Once the poem has been read in its entirety, the meaning of the title is altered. Now “One” implies a focused subject rather than any one thing. Also “Art” now means something that can be beautiful, but also can be devastating . The theme or observation about life which the poet is expressing is that we might become masters of the art of losing, but in doing so, find our true selves.
Her poem, “One Art”, which was written after her lover, Lota de Macedo Soares, committed suicide, received mostly high aclaim by critics because of how emotional and powerful it was. Critics wrote that losing something, or someone, in some way creates a situation in which people are most helpless, and that Bishop personifies this in the poem (David).
There are famous critic theories about specific lines in the poem. Some critics believe that the “joking voice” belongs to the “you” that Bishop addresses, and that she is trying to put down a loved trait. Another theory is that the poem is self-reflexive, and that “Even losing you and & I shan’t have lied” is told in a “joking voice” (“Bishop”).
One critic wrote that Bishop’s voice, or tone, in the poem never did modulate and was bland the entire poem, and that she was to quiet and introspective, more observant than otherwise. Many people, and critics alike, disagree with this statement (Unterecker).
Many critics claim that this is a very bold statement and one that is very false. “One Art” personified the true meaning of the word, “lost”. One critic wrote that “The only way we can overcome loss is to concede helplessness-but that concession is indeed a choice.” (Unterecker).
After her death in 1979, one critic had one more thing to say about her and her works. “Perhaps, her integrity can be measured by her accuracy and that accuracy by its function in creating a social, joyous, valuing, and modest wisdom. She is at once responsive to the domestic and strange, as well as one of our most civilized and-in the heart of her work-most civilizing poets” (David).
This student strongly agrees with most of the statements said by these critics. The poem is very powerful and personifies what it means to be human. Humans lose things and people alike. The poem shows an average life, losing things that mean so much to the person living that life, and that is exactly what happens in anyone’s life. While it demonstrates the human life, it also shows us how to find our true selves.
Most of her early years were spent with relatives, who she said took care of her because they felt sorry for her. Later on, she was removed from her carefree childhood home where she lived with her grandparents in the town of Great Village, Nova Scotia. Bishop did not like living at the wealthy Bishop residence in Worcester, and wanted to move to Canada, a place …show more content…
she loved dearly (“Bishop”).
Bishop lived in many places, such as Mexico, France, and England, eventually growing older in Brazil. During college, Bishop had big dreams of becoming a music composer, but a fear of doing public performances made her abandon that dream. Some of her best friends came from college, such as Muriel Rukeyser, Eleanor Clark, and Mary McCarthy (David).
However, it was Marianne Moore who had the greatest impact on her. Bishop met Moore through the college librarian, Fanny Borden. Moore eventually helped Bishop abandon her plans of studying medicine and to work on poetry instead. The two poets became great friends after an interview in the New York Public Library (Unterecker).
Bishop temporarily settled as an undergraduate at Vassar College in the early 1930’s. Bishop lived by a quote from Annie Dillard that states, “Geography is the key, the crucial accident of birth.” Bishop always tried to incorporate geography into her poems. Besides Moore, Bishop credited George Herbert and Wallace Stevens as being important influences on her (“Elizabeth”).
Bishop received many awards during her career. A Cold Spring received the Pulitzer Prize in 1956. She also received the National Book Award for The Complete Poems in 1970, and the National Book Critics Circle Award for Geography III in 1977 (David).
Bishop's life was not always full of happiness, however. On September 19, 1967, her lover, Lota de Macedo Soares, took an overdose of tranquilizers while visiting Bishop in New York. It is said that a failing relationship with Bishop and problems with work pushed her over the edge, and she died several days later. After Soares’s death, Bishop wrote to a longtime friend, Robert Lowell. “I miss her more everyday of my life. It is like my early days. I lost my mother, and Lota, and others, too,” Bishop wrote (“Bishop”).
Bishop would go on to take that painful moment, as well as other painful and losing moments, and would write one of her most famous poems in her career, “One Art”. In “One Art”, Bishop states that losing things in an art, and that losing things in life is an art that is not hard at all to master. The poem shows people that, while one may become an expert in the art of losing, they
will find themselves in the process, which Bishop says that is the true meaning of life (“Elizabeth”).
Elizabeth Bishop died in her apartment in Lewis Wharf, Boston on October 6, 1979 of a ruptured cerebral aneurysm. She was 68 years old. After her death, the Elizabeth Bishop house, an artist’s retreat in Great Village, Nova Scotia, was dedicated in her memory.
The art of losing isn’t hard to master; so many things seem filled with the intent to be lost that their loss is no disaster.
Lose something every day. Accept the fluster of lost door keys, the hour badly spent.
The art of losing isn’t hard to master.
Then practice losing farther, losing faster: places, and names, and where it was you meant to travel. None of these will bring disaster.
I lost my mother’s watch. And look! my last, or next-to-last, of three loved houses went.
The art of losing isn’t hard to master.
I lost two cities, lovely ones. And, vaster, some realms I owned, two rivers, a continent.
I miss them, but it wasn’t a disaster.
—Even losing you (the joking voice, a gesture
I love) I shan’t have lied. It’s evident the art of losing’s not too hard to master though it may look like (Write it!) like disaster.
In Elizabeth Bishop’s poem “One Art”, the title itself brings to mind images of how Earth and life combine to make one art.
The word “One”, suggests a singular entity and the word “Art”, adds to the feeling of beauty. A reader would expect a poem entitled “One Art” to be about the wholesomeness of life, and in this case the reader’s expectations would be met with surprise.
The poem tells the story of Elizabeth Bishop’s life. Each stanza in the poem represents something she lost. She tries to say that things are meant to be lost, and there is no disaster in losing things,but when she loses her home, parents, and lover, she realized losing loved ones results in disaster.
Bishop has created a tone of sadness through the use of specific words and phrases. “Loss” implies the uncertainty of what to do next. The word “art” is used multiple times to say that losing is an art that is not hard to master.
The tone of inevitability is maintained throughout the poem until the last stanza when it shifts to a feeling of true loss. At that point, the reader begins to see a different attitude toward losing. She started off thinking that losing was just an art until she started losing things closer to her, and realized losing was not an art, but a
curse.
Once the poem has been read in its entirety, the meaning of the title is altered. Now “One” implies a focused subject rather than any one thing. Also “Art” now means something that can be beautiful, but also can be devastating . The theme or observation about life which the poet is expressing is that we might become masters of the art of losing, but in doing so, find our true selves.
Her poem, “One Art”, which was written after her lover, Lota de Macedo Soares, committed suicide, received mostly high aclaim by critics because of how emotional and powerful it was. Critics wrote that losing something, or someone, in some way creates a situation in which people are most helpless, and that Bishop personifies this in the poem (David).
There are famous critic theories about specific lines in the poem. Some critics believe that the “joking voice” belongs to the “you” that Bishop addresses, and that she is trying to put down a loved trait. Another theory is that the poem is self-reflexive, and that “Even losing you and & I shan’t have lied” is told in a “joking voice” (“Bishop”).
One critic wrote that Bishop’s voice, or tone, in the poem never did modulate and was bland the entire poem, and that she was to quiet and introspective, more observant than otherwise. Many people, and critics alike, disagree with this statement (Unterecker).
Many critics claim that this is a very bold statement and one that is very false. “One Art” personified the true meaning of the word, “lost”. One critic wrote that “The only way we can overcome loss is to concede helplessness-but that concession is indeed a choice.” (Unterecker).
After her death in 1979, one critic had one more thing to say about her and her works. “Perhaps, her integrity can be measured by her accuracy and that accuracy by its function in creating a social, joyous, valuing, and modest wisdom. She is at once responsive to the domestic and strange, as well as one of our most civilized and-in the heart of her work-most civilizing poets” (David).
This student strongly agrees with most of the statements said by these critics. The poem is very powerful and personifies what it means to be human. Humans lose things and people alike. The poem shows an average life, losing things that mean so much to the person living that life, and that is exactly what happens in anyone’s life. While it demonstrates the human life, it also shows us how to find our true selves.