Elizabeth Bishop - One Art (poème) (document en anglais)

Elizabeth Bishop – One art

Background:

Relationship with women= very close +great love (lesbian?), poem written just after the death of a very close friend (Marianne Monroe). 17th versions, drafts.

The poem:

Each stanza= explanation of the kind of loss which leads to the “losing you”.

Repetition of “loss”, “losing” accentuates the loss, disaster of the poet.

She wants to reassure herself,

Art= learn by experience. Art of losing  the art of writing about her feelings.

The structure informs the meaning: the rhyme scheme is lost, broken conveys the loss of the poet.

Paradox=the art of losing it is hard to get something, not to lose.

Format:

The poem is a villanelle- 19 lines, normally 2 repeated rimes, 2 refrains, 5 tercets + 1 quatrain.

Form of poetry started in the Renaissance, not especially French but Italian.

All feminine rhymes- the stress comes on the first syllables- gives a faster rhythm + smooth one, leads on to the next line.

Deceptive poem- seem to be an easy poem but reveals more difficult, many drafts…

Details:

One art: specific, her own one.

First stanza:

“Isn’t” weaker than is not, show that it is not hard. “Isn’t” have lost the “o”.

Assonance “art, hard”.

Feminine rhymes make it less powerful. The art of loosingeasy something you do everyday.

“Many things”: vague, unimportant things, hyperbole. Passive voice for the “things”, they want to be lost “intent to be lost” not important.

“Lost” +”loss” +”disaster” alliteration, gives the sense of flow, convince herself that it is easy, gives strength to the idea expressed.

Paradox: “art to master loss” but seem not important…

Second stanza:

“Lose” a verb but no subject, generalization, she is talking to herself, something casual, daily.

“Door keys” (more precise, gradation to precision): everyday, a habit, and idea of frequency.

“Accept” no subject, you have to accept in order to become master, no choice idea of fatalism because you cannot do anything about it, accept the reaction, the action.

“Badly spent” idea of losing, wasting time, time is gone = nostalgia.

Refrain: “the art of loosing is not hard to master” convince herself that it is easy.

Third stanza:

“Farther” confuses with father.

The pace increases parallel structure

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