One Art Response

After reading One Art by Elizabeth Bishop, I had the sensation that I was losing everything in my life without realizing it. The poem indicates that losing is a slippery slope. It may start with the things that are easy to lose, such as your keys or an hour of time, but eventually it progresses to losing things of importance, such as cities and continents. These early losses rarely result in disaster, as Bishop notes, but as the poem progresses, the stakes get higher. I have always been a "spacey" or forgetful person, and the idea of losing the most important things to me without realizing it is very scary.

When I first read the first line, I thought that Bishop was talking about losing in a sports match or video game. I anticipated that the poem would be about sportsmanship and growing from adversity. However, Bishop uses the word "losing" vaguely. She uses it to mean several things ranging from physically misplacing something to wasting time to experiencing a disconnection from ones home. It appears the art of losing is all to easy to master for the poet, and has lead to her losing everything in her life.

As far as form is concerned, the poem features enjambment throughout, which lead me to feel as though I was stumbling through the poem awkwardly. When considering form, the last stanza stands out because it is four lines while the rest are three. This makes the last stanza stand out and draws attention to it, forcing the reader to consider it more closely. The content of the final stanza is also seemingly more significant than the rest of the story. It is clear that all the author's losses became progressively more serious building up to the last stanza, and in the final stanza she addresses the person for whom the poem is intended, the person whom she lost. But she goes on to say even losing "you" was ultimately easy, which can be interpreted as the authors final admission that she has lost so much that she can lose anything easily.