The Growing Scale of Loss in Elizabeth Bishop’s One Art
Loss is an unavoidable part of life. People lose objects, such as keys, phones, and wallets on a daily basis. These small losses do make them upset, but they live a normal life after a short period of time as it never happened. However, loss of personal and meaningful things brings grief, sadness, and pain. And it is easy to hold on to significant losses and dwell in the moment of them. However, they should try to find a way to survive through the process of loss, rather than staying in sorrowfulness. A poem called, “One Art” by Elizabeth Bishop portrays the author’s view on loss, telling the reader how she navigates the pain of loss and survives through it. The poem builds up the severity of the losses stanza by stanza until the climax in the last stanza – the loss of a beloved one. By using repetition, Bishop emphasizes on that the loss is not difficult as people think and they can survive through it as she did. By building up the severity of losses and using powerful literary devices in the poem, Bishop suggests that an individual will survive through the disaster of unavoidable loss by learning and practicing to let go of the pain of loss, even when it seems impossible.
The first two stanzas allow the reader to relate and agree that the loss is not a disaster by explaining it as a natural part of life. The poem starts by telling the reader how there are “so many things seem filled with the intent / to be lost” (2, 3). Bishop uses a personification on “so many things” as they want to get lost. It is, indeed, people who lose them. However, through giving a human characteristic to the things, it assures the reader that there is no point of getting stressed or mourning for losing things since they are intended to be lost in the first place. When something gets lost, it was bound to happen in the first place. Furthermore, people lose significant and insignificant things constantly; they “lose something every day” (4). Therefore, the “loss is [not] a disaster” (3). In the second stanza, the speaker tells the reader two examples of extremely common things that people lose commonly – “door keys, [and] the hour”. Losing these two items are universal, making the reader relate and agree that the loss is not difficult and it is, indeed, not a disaster. Loss happens constantly in everywhere, and no one can avoid it. In this uncontrollable events of loss, people can accept the fact that the loss is a natural part of life as we lose simple things daily and that they do not have to feel depressed but move on with their lives.
There is a slight tone change from sardonic to melancholy as the speaker goes to the next level of loss. These losses have, now, caused more emotional stress to the author than beforehand. The poem begins to show a glimpse of the burden of loss and it may not be as easy as to let go of it. The lost objects are not simply physical objects anymore, but they are memories and thoughts. They are more significance loss, such as “places, names, where…to travel” (7, 8). People do not like losing things, and they spend a long period to find them. Finding the memories or thoughts may take a while, but people can go and find the lost things through looking up or searching for the places and asking for the names. This loss is definitely harder and maybe feels like a tragedy, compared to the lost in the last stanza. However, since these losses are a natural part of life and in that people can find the things back, they will not bring disaster. From starting with a small loss and building up, the author prepares the reader to be ready to go to the more intensive level of loss stanza by stanza. Similar to the loss of simple objects, loss of places and names is not a big of a deal.
Starting from the fourth stanza, the speaker begins to personalize the losses. Before this stanza, the author uses the word, “you,” to make the reader think back through their loss on places and names. However, now, the speaker uses “I”, instead of “you” to tell his own experiences of losses. The scale of loss gets bigger, losing “mother’s watch / three loved houses / two cities / two rivers / a continent” (10, 11, 13, 14). The speaker does not describe his houses and cities in detail; however, using the word “lovely” before these items indicates that they took big parts of her life. An exclamation mark in the tenth line adds more intensity of emotions. The speaker’s last or the second last of lovely houses are now gone. Miserably, the loss does not stop there, but it moves on to the larger-scale – cities, rivers, and a continent. These losses are significant because they once gave the speaker a belonging, identity, and security. Now the speaker begins to feel reluctant to accept the fact that the loss is not a disaster. The pain and hurt from the loss are revealed in the poem. Uncontrollable and overwhelming feelings start to overtake the speaker’s heart. The author also admits the fact that she misses her lost objects, memories, places, and continents. From losing all of these, she is now about to break down. The loss that she continually practice now has become a disaster. Ironically and yet positively, the last line of the fifth stanza ends with the repeated phrase of the poem – “it wasn’t a disaster” (15), showing how the author reminds herself that the loss is not a disaster.
The poem reaches the climax in the last stanza, the loss of the most valuable, yet irreplaceable thing. Yet, the speaker ends the poem by saying that this loss is not a disaster even when it seems like it. This stanza starts with the dashed line, giving the poem a pause from all the emotional stress and giving time for the speaker to get ready before the biggest loss. The dash also serves as the overwhelming feeling of the author. At this point, the loss is beyond a disaster, and the speaker has lost it. The speaker strives to master the loss, yet she has reached her limit. It seems impossible to accept the loss at this point. However, the speaker gives her way of dealing with the pain of loss in this miserable time – “writing out” (18). She writes down and shares her pain, somewhat letting go of uncontrollable sadness and grief. Even with many practices of losing, she is overwhelmed with the lost. However, the speaker survives. She is not fully recovered or healed, but she has her way of navigating the pain. She keeps trying to look at the loss as not a disaster, reminding herself that it is a natural part of life. The poem ends, saying that “the art of losing is not hard to master.” One will see the art of pain and the learning process from losses when he navigates through the pain of loss.
Bishop guides the reader through the range of losses, from very common losses to very important losses, and encourages the reader that they will survive and endure even in the disastrous loss. The loss may take away one’s identity, security, and values. This leaves him with pain and sorrow. Denial and mourning are normal reactions to the loss. It is important to remember that individual never stop missing his beloved one, but also that the pain eases after time and allows him to move on with his life. The speaker practices the art of losing by practicing the loss step by step; yet, she still struggles to become a master. Loss is a disaster, yet instead of looking at it as a disaster, people will get through this by practicing the loss. People should not lose themselves in the process of losing their valuable things. No one can avoid what is a natural part of life – loss, but one can decide how to react to the unavoidable incidents.
