One art By: Elizabeth Bishop Created by : Angela Sanchez Leticia Ortiz Abigail Sebastian Erika Meza Luis Javalera

Elizabeth Bishop Poem Villanelle Iambic pentameter Rhyme Scheme One Art The art of losing isn’t hard to master; so many things seem filled with intent to be lost that their lost 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 losing 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 voice, 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. Elizabeth Bishop Poem Villanelle Iambic pentameter Rhyme Scheme Repetition Art Tone

The author Name : Elizabeth Bishop Born: Feb. 8 1911 In Worcester MA Died: Oct. 8 1979 In Boston MA Sex: Female Bio: American Poet and Short- Story Writer Won many awards Worked in Universities

Elizabeth Bishop Elizabeth Bishop was an American poet and a short story writer Bishop won the Pulitzer prize in 1956 She was the Poet Laureate of the United States from 1949 - 1950 Bishop is considered one of the important and distinguished American poets of the 20th century Was an only child Her mother became mentally ill and was institutionalized in 1916 Her father died when she was 8 months old she lost a lot of people but she wrote the poem and her lover that died

Structure The poem is a Villanelle a French verse form calculated to appear simple and spontaneous It has 19 lines divided into 6 stanzas It consists of 5 tercets and 1 quatrain The rhyme scheme is aba aba aba aba aba abba only and end rhyme Lines 1, 6, 12, and 18 repeat On lines 3, 9, 15, and 19 she repeats the word disaster She uses enjambment on lines 2, 4, 8, 10, 16, 17, and 18 to make the reader continue reading

Structure The tone of the poem if very casual in the beginning Around the end of the poem the tone shifts to show the frustration and pain that Bishop is going through with excepting the death of her lover The diction of this poem is very strong but played off to seem more casual At the end of the poem bishop shows her frustration with repeating the word “like”

first stanza In the opening tercet, we get a message from Bishop that loss or losing isn’t really a big deal and that we should just get used to it. “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.”

Second Stanza “accept fluster”, telling us that you get to a point where you simply just stop getting frustrated by the losing stuff. Also in this poem we see that the poet does not only give objects as an example of losing thins but also time. Like for example when you waste your time doing totally un-necessary things instead of doing that project that you need to turn in tomorrow. You lose your time, and a grade in that scenario. “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 Bishop begins to grow in her loses. Third Stanza Then Bishop begins to grow in her loses. She begins to bring in the mental type of loses that occur. Like names, places, or things you had to do. Yet these thing can be big loses sometimes, we are currently still in the insignificant loses. “Then practice losing farther, losing faster places, and names, and where it was you meant to travel. The art of losing isn’t hard to master.”

Fourth Stanza Personal; Bishop brings in something that is of emotional value to her. (“mother’s watch”) This could be something other than a watch, her mother possibly died or she was not very connected to her. Also she mentions some houses, these house of her were lost, which means that the memories and personal associations with the house were lost as well. There is also a tremendous point that we couldn’t miss. The use of repetition, she once again repeats, that “ the art of losing isn’t hard to master” yet, can we really believe her this time ? “I lost my mother’s watch. And look ! My last, or next-to- last, of three loved houses went. The art losing isn’t hard to master.”

Fifth Stanza Bishop s beginning to be more esoteric. For example, how could she even own a realm, more or less lose it ? She is going into a different period of time. And it almost seems as if she is giving her self this position of a Queen. She says she owned a rives and TWO cities and even a continent! But the question is what makes these things significant enough to be written in this particular piece of poetry. Honestly there are some many possibilities, and we are not given an answer but we know that this Queen that she imagined her self as. Lost her kingdom. Though one thing is for certainty, our curiosity is digging deeper into this puzzling poem. “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.”

Sixth Stanza In the final quatrain, one thing is clear, this insignificant piece of poetry to the Elizabeth Bishop. Is actually one of the most significant things to us living life forms. Bishop reminds her self of “a voice, a gesture…” here she finally admits that the art of losing IS hard and sometimes it does seem like a disaster. Finally in the end she chokes when writing “(Write it !)” She exposes her struggle with the loses in her life, the big ones as much as the small ones. Bishop shows hoe she must force her self to write the word “disaster”. Elizabeth Bishop reveals that she is no different from rest of us, after all she is human, and like any human she does feel. “-Even losing you (the joking voice, a gesture I love) 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”

Quiz What type if poem is this ? Who did Bishop lose as a child? What line repeats through out the whole poem? In the poem what was the first thing she lost? Is the meter consistent throughout the whole poem? Who was Bishops big loss? How did Elizabeth Bishop contradict her self? What did she mean by “art”? What do you think most likely the poem tried to tell us ? Losing is easy b. losing is difficult c. we lose too many things What was difficult for Bishop to admit ?