One Art Prompt

One Art by Elizabeth Bishop

In the poem “One Art” by Elizabeth Bishop, the narrator shows two distinct attitudes-- her attitude for the most part of the poem (lines 1-15) and her attitude for the last part of the poem (lines 16-19)—which differ quite a bit. For the majority of the poem, the speaker remains quite indifferent about loss. The very first line, “the art of losing isn’t hard to master” says many things about the speaker. The speaker judging from her tone and the lines in the poem has gone through many losses in her life “lost of door keys….places, and names and where it was you meant to travel”, “her “mother’s watch” and her “three loved houses”. All of these, from the smallest thing such as door keys to larger ones such as a lost vacation or a house, all of which had the same effect on her. Throughout the majority of the first portion, the narrator seems indifferent to her losses. She believes that though she has lost something, it was not detrimental to her.

            However as the poem comes to a close she seems to be talking about a significant other that she may have come in contact with. This is different than the rest of the poem because she is talking about her love for another human being rather than materialistic items such as a watch or a key or even a house. Also because the very last line “Though it may look like (Write it!) like disaster” shows that she actually feels like it is detrimental losing someone she loves. Whereas in the previous portion of the poem she clearly states “None of these will bring disaster” and “it wasn’t a disaster”. Her shift from being definite about something to being unsure of it shows the reader what can only be the effect of love. It shows that love can change the way one views things, such as the narrator’s views on losses.