One Art By Elizabeth Bishop Ricardo Guevara Josselin Gonzalez Oscar Campos PERIOD 2

Poem positive negative 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 loosing 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 voices, 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. positive negative

Biography Elizabeth Bishop was born in February 8,1911 in Worcester, Massachusetts. She never got to know her father that died when she was only 8 months old. After her fathers death Elizabeth’s mother became mentally ill and was institut -ionalized in 1916. She was raised by her grand parents all of her life. Elizabeth’s biggest influence was a poet named Marianne Moore. Marianne was interested in Elizabeth’s early poems Elizabeth wanted to join medical school but Marianne convinced her other wise. One of Bishops other influences was the death of Lota Soares, a long time partner who committed suicide. Elizabeth wrote around a total of 56 different writings, books, and poem. After her career she went to teach at the University of Boston. In October 6, 1979, at the age of sixty-eight, Elizabeth Bishop passed away due to a cerebral aneurysm in her apartment at Lewis Wharf, Boston.

Structure The poem is a villanelle The poem contains 6 stanza’s with the first 5 being tercet’s and the final stanza being a quatrain The poem is written in iambic pentameter The rhyme scheme of the poem is aba aba aba aba aba abaa Lines 1, 6, 12, and 18 are refrain which means it repeats. “The art of losing isn’t hard to master.” although line 18 changes “isn’t” to “not.” The last word of lines 3, 9,15, and 19 are also refrain as it repeats “disaster.”

Stanza one 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. Line 1 wants to say that losing something is not hard to accept. In line 2 when she says “filled with intent” refers to her longtime partner, Lota Soares, who intended to commit suicide and succeeded. Line 2 and 3 says that things on all scales seem difficult to hold onto.

Stanza two Lose something every day. Accept the fluster of lost door keys, the hour badly spent. The art of losing isn’t hard to master Line 4, throughout life we all experience loss, big or small. line 5 she starts off small with the loss of her keys and all the time lost looking for those keys. Line 6, again she repeats how a loss is not hard to accept.

Stanza three Then practice losing farther, losing faster: places, and names, and where it was you meant to travel. None of these will bring disaster. Line 7, losing bigger things gets easier to accept quicker as you loose more and more things. Lines 8 and 9, losing small things like names and places she should have gone are not as big and will not make it a big “disaster.”

Stanza four I lost my mothers watch. And look! my last, or Next-to-last, of three loved houses went. The art of loosing isn’t hard to master. Line 10, she loses her mothers watch which is really big because it is one of the few memories she has of her mom since her death. Line 11, she remembers the former homes which she lived in which had sentimental value for her. Line 12, makes it seem as the more she repeats this it makes it more and more easier for her to accept loss.

Stanza five 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. Line 13, the cities which she does not specify, I believe are Nova Scotia where she spent after her mothers death and Samambaia where she lived with Lota but then left as it reminded Bishop of her. Line 14, the 2 rivers are the Amazon and the Tapajos, which she writes about in other poems, and the continent is South America. Line 15, she says they are not as big as other losses as it does not impact her as much.

Stanza six -Even losing you (the joking voices, 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. Line 16 and 17, losing Lota is her biggest loss and the art of losing really is not hard to master and she shall not lie about the pain and admit that losing her was not hard to accept. Line 18 and 19, she finishes off with letting us know once again that loss is easy to accept no matter what it looks like. Line 19, “(Write it!)”, makes the acceptance of her loved one death official.