Villanelle Essay, Research Paper

The art of losing something isn t hard to master;

So many thinks seem filled with the intent

To be lost that their loss, is no disaster.

Lose something everyday. 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, faster,

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

Thought it may look like (Write it!) like disaster.

One Art by Elizabeth Bishop is about losing things. Bishop describes losing things as an art. The art of losing isn t hard to master (Bishop). She says things such as, Lose something everyday (Bishop). This goes along with the comparison of art to losing things because arts take daily practice. Losing something everyday is practice for the art of losing. Then practice losing farther, losing faster (Bishop). Losing can be like any other practice because as one practice s more, tasks become easier and more of a challenge is needed. Throughout the poem, things are lost in a particular order. It starts out with losing little things, which really do not make much of a difference and ends with losing things that can greatly affect someone.

Accept the fluster — Of lost door keys, the hour badly spent (Bishop). In this line of the poem the author is saying it is not worth one s time to look for things as insignificant as lost door keys. Along with losing the door keys, people lose valuable time of their life looking for them.

Places, and names, and where it was you meant — To travel. None of these will bring disaster (Bishop). As the poem progresses, bigger things are lost. People forget places and names, but the author is saying that it is not that bad and it really is not a disaster.

I lost my mother s watch. And Look! My last, or — Next-to-last, of three houses went (Bishop). This line goes along with the continuous order of losing things. She lost her mother s watch, which most likely has sentimental value, and she lost three houses, which have financial value. These losses are bigger than the losses she previously had, but she still does not think they are that bad.

I lost two cities, lovely ones. And, faster, — Some realms I owned, two rivers, a continent (Bishop). In this line the author is saying she lost things like cities, rivers, and continents which are huge and would be enormous losses, but she continued saying, it wasn t a disaster (Bishop).

Even losing you (the joking voice, a gesture — I love) I shan t have lied (Bishop).

Throughout the poem the author was saying losing things is not that difficult to deal with, but in this line when it came to an important person, she tries to say it does not bother her, but it really does and she cannot hide it. The author lost things as small as door keys and things as large as continents, but losing someone she loves hurts much more than anything else.

This poem was a villanelle because it is nineteen lines long and it has six stanzas, which include five triplets and one quatrain. It also has the rhyme scheme of a1-b-a2, a-b-a1, a-b-a2, a-b-a1, a-b-a2, a-b-a1-a2. This poem is written in iambic form but it has no specific meter.

The author used masculine and feminine rhymes in her poem. Masculine rhymes are rhymes where only the last, accented syllable of the rhyming words, correspond exactly in sound. Some examples of masculine rhymes used in the poem consist of the words, intent, spent, meant, went, continent, and evident. Feminine rhymes are rhymes in which two consecutive syllables of the rhyming words correspond. Some examples of feminine rhymes used in the poem consist of disaster, master, fluster, and gesture. Fluster and gesture can also be considered half rhymes.

One Art is a well-written poem because it follows the rules of the villanelle poetry style, it uses literary devises, and it carries meaning and purpose, which makes the poem worth reading.