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Essay Interpreting "One Art" By Elizabeth Bishop - Example Papers

Essay Interpreting "One Art" By Elizabeth Bishop

In "One Art" by Elizabeth Bishop, the speaker's attitude in the last stanza
relates to the other stanzas in verse form and language. The speaker uses
these devices to convey her attitude about losing objects.
The verse form in "One Art" is villanelle. The poem has tercet stanzas
until the last, which is four lines. In the first three stanzas, the poem
is told in second person. "Lose something every day." seems to command one
to practice the art of losing things. In the three stanzas, first person is
used, and the speaker relates how she "lost her mother's watch" and other
life incidents. However, the speaker addresses her beloved "you," and then
in the last line, herself.

Language in ...

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statement in the final quatrain "Even losing you" begins
the irony in that stanza. The speaker remarks that losing this person is
not "too hard" to master. The shift in attitude by adding the word "too"
shows that the speaker has an ironic tone for herself in her loss or
perhaps her husband or someone else close to her.

Language and verse form show in "One Art" how the losses increase in
importance as the poem progresses, with the losses in lines 1-15 being
mostly trivial or not very important to the great loss in lines 16-19 or a
beloved person. Elizabeth Bishop suggests then that mastering the art of
losing objects, such as car keys, does not prepare one for the loss of a
person, which adds more irony to the title. There must be more than one art
to losing, if losing a person is a separate ...

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Essay Interpreting "One Art" By Elizabeth Bishop. (2005, April 30). Retrieved January 12, 2026, from http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Essay-Interpreting-One-Art-Elizabeth-Bishop/26178

"Essay Interpreting "One Art" By Elizabeth Bishop." Essayworld.com. Essayworld.com, 30 Apr. 2005. Web. 12 Jan. 2026. <http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Essay-Interpreting-One-Art-Elizabeth-Bishop/26178>

"Essay Interpreting "One Art" By Elizabeth Bishop." Essayworld.com. April 30, 2005. Accessed January 12, 2026. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Essay-Interpreting-One-Art-Elizabeth-Bishop/26178.

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PAPER DETAILS

Added: 4/30/2005 07:48:17 PM
Category: Poetry & Poets
Type: Free Paper
Words: 364
Pages: 2

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