My Poetry Page

One Art

by Elizabeth Bishop   

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.

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.

I. About the Poem

"One Art" from The Complete Poems 1927-1979 by Elizabeth Bishop, published by Farrar, Straus & Giroux, Inc. Copyright © 1979, 1983 by Alice Helen Methfessel. Used with permssion of  Farrar, Straus & Giroux, LLC. All rights reserved.

Works Cited （参考文献）         

Poets.org. Academy of American Poets, n.d. Web. 09 May 2016. <https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poem/one-art>.           

II. About the Poet

Elizabeth Bishop was an American poet and short-story writer.

She was born on February 8, 1911, in Worcester, Massachusetts.
She recived the 1956 Pulitzer Prize for her collection, Poems: North & South / A Could Spring (Houghton Mifflin, 1955). Her Complete Poems (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1969), won the National Book Award in 1970.

Works Cited （参考文献）
"One Art Academy of American Poets." Academy of American Poets, n.d. Web. 01 May 2016. <https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poet/elizabeth-bishop>.                  

III. My Reaction

A. Reaction Point - Rhyme(韻、言葉の端部で音の繰り返し）

[Rhyme means 'the repetition of sounds at the ends of words.']

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.

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;

None of these will bring disaster.

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 master though it may look like (Write it!) like disaster.

The sound at the end of the word, 'ster' is repeated there.
I think the sound of the'ster' is very beautiful.

B. Reaction Point - Hyperbole (誇張)

[Hyperbole means 'exaggerated representation.']


I lost two cities, lovely ones.
And, vaster, some realms I owned, two rivers, a continent.

The author uses quite exaggerated representations . 　

I think she tells herself that there is no problem for her even if she lose anything.

C. Reaction Point - Connotation (言葉の意味、含意）

[Connotation means 'containing a meaning that does not appear on the surface.']

What does 'art' mean there?
　

I think "art" means "skill" there.

D. My General Opinion

I think the poet pretends to be tough.
In fact, She think it's a sorrow that losing someone.