Rick Molloy · 4 November 2002

Hi ,

Actually I think the art of losing is hard to master, and I find the poem quite flipppant in it’s dismissal of life and losing. As admirable as it seems, I do not think I would so easily give up the material and spirititual possessions that are advocated by the poem.

Do you really have an interest in this poem?

Interested in your comments,

Rick

Angel54586 · 1 December 2002

i don’t understand the end of this poem! whom has this person lossed at the end? is it a person or the joking voice? what does she mean by joking voice anyway? why does it say “write it” in the middle of the sentence? I’m confused!

T0zeebeach · 28 May 2003

i think she’s talking to the reader at the end of the poem

Ray Rasmussen · 29 August 2003

I think that Bishop is saying that we grow beyond the little losses, think that we have reached an anchored place, and then lose the one important thing … in this case a friend/lover? [his/her joking voice, a gesture] … and now she must make herself “WRITE IT” … because it is a disaster and the one path through it is to write/express it.
Ray Rasmussen

anonymous · 18 September 2003

“villanelle”, folks, “villanelle”.
(Somebody has to say it.)

John Wolfe · 1 February 2004

Marilyn Hacker has a wise and beautiful response to this poem. This is from her 1990 collection, “Going Back to the River.”

From Orient Point

The art of living isn’t hard to muster:
Enjoy the hour, not what it might portend.
When someone makes you promises, don’t trust her

unless they’re in the here and now, and just her willing largesse free-handed to a friend.
The art of living isn’t hard to muster:

groom the old dog, her coat gets back its luster; take brisk walks so you’re hungry at the end. When someone makes you promises, don’t trust her

to know she can afford what they will cost her to keep until they’re kept. Till then, pretend the art of living isn’t hard to muster.

Cooking, eating and drinking are a cluster
of pleasures. Next time, don’t go round the bend when someone makes you promises. Don’t trust her

past where you’d trust yourself, and don’t adjust her words to mean more to you than she’d intend.
The art of living isn’t hard to muster.

You never had her, so you haven’t lost her
like spare house keys. Whatever she opens,
when someone makes you promises, don’t. Trust your art; go on living: that’s not hard to muster.

Michal Goldman · 26 November 2004

Thank you for this! Though I think Bishop’s poem is more beautiful. I loved it and memorized it and for as long as I said it every now and then it was a good companion. Some poems - this is one of them - feel good in the mouth, and you can tell it even before you read them aloud. michal

Michal Goldman · 26 November 2004

Yes since it’s the road map and the life line. Great grandchild of Verlaine?

michal

Michal Goldman · 26 November 2004

YES!

WRTE IT! Those two little words are the big lesson, the tough task, and the main hope. Thanks for saying it so well.
michal

LLinda · 10 April 2005

(Write it) - Elizabeth is forcing a moment. Take a breath, sit up and face the feelings that you have buried deep. “It may look like”… disaster…be reminded “may” . After the feelings have been forced, maybe then you can accept “the art of losing”…and go on.

JesseAporta · 13 April 2005

The point to this poem is that the art of losing is hard to deal with but everyone is good at it. Its universal appeal is what makes this poem so powerful. We have all lost someone…we all get pissed when we loose the little mundane things like keys or a wallet or eyeglasses. Bishop tells us to let go. Simple and Pure. Just let go!

sky · 7 May 2005

This poem and poet share a common experience. Trying to remember where I last left off in the middle of a sentence, stop write down what I ment to say in the beginning when I was trying to remember what it was I was trying to say. Yeah, I really embrase the poet and her poem. Sky Kaly in NM, still here.

Kate.Bills · 7 November 2005

I think the poem is saying: those who love always experience loss, but this is no reason not to love - rather, to accept that in life you have to deal with loss - and to accept this, means you can survive, and even start living after your loss (and what better way to start the uphill struggle than to build on the small, but well rehearsed experience of loss gained in our daily lives)

Kate

Kate Bills
Northdoor plc
T:F:E:
W: www.northdoor.co.uk

Paul Mercken · 23 November 2005

In the recent film ‘In Her Shoes’ this poem is read in a nursing home by an apparently ignorant dyslexic girl (Cameron Diaz) to a blind professor of literature (Norman Lloyd), who elicits from her a poignant interpretation, perhaps the best moment of the film.

Paul Mercken · 23 November 2005

In the recent film ŒIn her shoes¹ this poem is read in a nursing home by an apparently ignorant dyslexic girl (Cameron Diaz) to a blind professor of literature (Norman Lloyd), who elicits from her a poignant interpretation, perhaps the best moment in the film.

Shannon Daley · 7 December 2005

Think of this poem and especially the “art” of losing in connection to the mastery of writing poetry. Bishop is stuggling to deal with the loss of a lover or close friend (we can assume this from the final quatraine) and she is dealing with this loss by showing her compentcty in writing poetry and especially in tackling a villanelle (a difficult and strict structure). “Write it!”- a command to herself to express her grief through the art of poetry.

so what do you all think?

Guilherme Menezes · 20 December 2005

In this poem, Bishop talk about a person witch live a not importnat life. It´s a critical way of life.

Emily K Salmond · 15 January 2006

Have you ever lost someone you cared about? One day they were there and the next they were just out of your life? Coping with it is impossible. It could be a hard breakup or a death or just a falling out with a friend or loved one. She’s not just overlooking loss and saying its easy - she’s trying to hard for that if you really look closely. she can’t master it - that’s why she had to tell herself “write it” about it looking like disaster in the final line. That is how she feels. The loss was a disaster, she’s trying to pull herself through it, but she’s really quite miserable.

Katya Ivanova · 22 January 2006

Losing is a part of life and we should learn to deal with it. It is not a disaster to lose your spare keys or move away from a place you love, adopting this attitude helps us go through life - if you have a master key, if there are many other wonderful places in the world left to explore what is there to feel sorry for, but extending this approach to relationships with people doesn’t work as well, as the poet tries to convince herself (ironically)

David Williamson · 29 January 2006

Salmonde1, I feel is the nearest to understanding Bishop’s words. Bishop tries to convince herself that to lose someone close can be disregarded in the same manner as mislaying ones keys. That one can lose all material possessions and that it doesn’t really matter. Well it doesn’t! But to lose someone close does matter. It is a disaster, a tragedy and fills one full or regret.
Especially if the loss is due to being careless in that lost relationship. Her self denial of the importance of the lost relationship evaporates in the last line, when she suddenly realises…it is a disaster.

Margaret Shank · 30 January 2006

P.P.P.S. Oh yeah, and Gerard Manley Hopkins’s “Margaret, are you grieving” and certain Japanese and Chinese poems I know by heart as well. All about loss, the swift passage of time (“Time flies, you say? Ah, no! Alas, Time stays - we go”), the fragility of life, the impermanence of all things. Hmmm. But then there’s “Does a dog have Buddha nature? Mu!”

Margaret Shank · 30 January 2006

P.P.S. Evidently this listserv doesn’t permit emphasis. Anyway, “Write” is italicized.

Margaret Shank · 30 January 2006

I think this is one of the saddest poems I have ever read. The poet puts on a brave face, but as the poem progresses you are aghast at how much she (and by extension, we all) have lost (or will). “Write it!” is placed precisely where it should be to prove that all loss, no matter how minor, is symbolic of the terrible process of life, in which we all have to lose every single thing, even existence itself: “like disaster.” Someone once wrote that to buy a pet is to buy a tragedy. Well, to live is to live a tragedy as well. “Call no man happy until he is dead.”

Tom Spencer · 3 February 2006

I love the comments posted about the flippant tone of this poem. The repetition of the line “The art of losing isn’t hard to master” does feel like a brave yet casual masquerade. Bishop’s theme and tone reminds me of the Dylan song, “Most of the Time.”

Most of the time
I’m clear focused all around,
Most of the time
I can keep both feet on the ground,
I can follow the path, I can read the signs,
Stay right with it, when the road unwinds,
I can handle whatever I stumble upon,
I don’t even notice she’s gone,
Most of the time.

Most of the time
It’s well understood,
Most of the time
I wouldn’t change it if I could,
I can’t make it all match up, I can hold my own, I can deal with the situation right down to the bone, I can survive, I can endure
And I don’t even think about her
Most of the time.

Most of the time
My head is on straight,
Most of the time
I’m strong enough not to hate.
I don’t build up illusion ‘till it makes me sick, I ain’t afraid of confusion no matter how thick I can smile in the face of mankind.
Don’t even remember what her lips felt like on mine Most of the time.

Most of the time
She ain’t even in my mind,
I wouldn’t know her if I saw her
She’s that far behind.
Most of the time
I can’t even be sure
If she was ever with me
Or if I was with her.

Most of the time
I’m halfway content,
Most of the time
I know exactly where I went,
I don’t cheat on myself, I don’t run and hide, Hide from the feelings, that are buried inside, I don’t compromise and I don’t pretend,
I don’t even care if I ever see her again
Most of the time.

Thanks for this site! Gardensoul aka Tom Spencer

Janet Levatin · 6 February 2006

Thanks for all the great comments. I can’t tell when the most recent post was, but mine is put her in February, 2006. I’m doing a study on loss, having experienced a couple of losses of people recently. Reading the posts is very helpful. Thanks for the comparison to the Dylan song. I find it particularly art.

Lisa.Galoci · 4 April 2006

Have you noticed the obvious? She’s talking about the art of losing, not the art of winning. Why doesn’t she want to win?

Lisa Galoci

Oyuijf · 6 April 2006

THe Art of Losing is not a prescription for life; it is a poem. As such, it is completely successful.

Chriszen · 14 April 2006

what ms. bishop is saying is that small things are not that big of a loss, when compared to losing someone. she in the masterful poem is trying to convince herself that losing a dear one is no difference than losing say; car keys. suffice it to say, though she tries to console herself with that thought, it obviously (as seen in the last stanza) doesn’t work. ron sterzinger
minnesota

Wayne C.Massick · 31 August 2006

If any of you have a dvd go to our local video place and rent the movie “ In her shoes” In the middle of this film is a good description of this poem. Please watch it.

New guy in Lille · 20 November 2006

Hi!
I just read all the comment on Bishop’s wonderful “One Art”. I was especially amazed to find Hacker’s take on the poem, all the more so that it happens that just this Sunday, I also wrote a Villanelle in Homage to “One Art”. Here it is if anyone is interested.

A Humble Homage to E.B., with thanks to Patrick

The villanelle’s so hard an art to master.
I tried to win his heart through sonnets yet
my poor attempts did clearly spell disaster.

“One Art” had thrilled his soul so, aiming vaster, I tracked her steps. Oh how could I forget?
the game of love’s so hard an art to master:

faced with disdain, it’s no use running faster. A lover less naïve could safely bet
my poor attempts were sure to spell disaster.

Why thus gesticulate if but to bluster
a fully-flawed unwarranted duet?
Seduction is so hard an art to master.

Failing to learn the art of loss I muster
frail words around me and refuse to let
my poor attempts fall flat and spell disaster.

Where marble stood: a replica of plaster
and, as for love, I’ve but an empty net.
The villanelle’s so hard an art to master:
my poor attempt could only spell disaster.

P.H. Lerlim, Nov 19 2006

Emma Gorst · 30 November 2006

She’s saying that the “art” of losing isn’t “hard” to master; it’s impossible. If loss were easy, or possible, to master, then she’d write about how losing was easy. Instead she writes about how it’s “not” difficult–repeating “not” over and over again. These repeated “nots” signify the denial that she’s affected by the loss of her lover.

The art of losing is impossible to master because it is, in fact, like disaster. The fact that disaster makes up the last word of the poem reinforces it. Like any good Shakespearean sonnet, the last lines give a definitive reading. The art of losing looks like disaster because it is disaster, but that’s too hard to write and far too hard to acknowledge, so what we have to put up with instead is a kind of surface flippancy, a pretence that loss can be survived without any significant loss of self.

I admire Marilyn Hacker’s response. But the reason that we need to treat the art of living seriously is because it’s valuable. Without the threat of loss, we would have no need to value it. Elizabeth Bishop’s poem admirably dramatises that threat.

I love this poem and memorised it when I first learned it, ten years ago.

Melanie Hickerson · 20 December 2006

Hello,
Thank you for posting this poem! I read it years ago and then painted a painting in 1997 called “The Art of Losing”. (see attached file) Yesterday, I sold the painting and the patron wanted to know about the title and I could not remember author…just remembered a few lines. It will mean alot to the new owners to know the poem too. Thank you again.
Melanie Hickerson

Chris Bemis · 4 February 2007

We struggle for the ability to reflect on events without unraveling. We stare into the endless abyss of our loss, learning just how far we can meet it with an even gaze before we are naked in our mourning. The disaster is when we have lost ourselves in the darkness. Yet it seems in the darkest places, something is there to see the absence of light. Perhaps even when we are truly gone, there is something of us that remains to see that we are gone.

Carla Reimerink · 8 April 2007

Why ‘write it!’? Because writing something down is a means to convince yourself. It may look like disaster, write it down, LOOK LIKE, but it isn’t, it isn’t, it just looks like disaster.

But of course, it is disaster, it is, it is, it is. The fact that she uses the powerful (over the top?) word ‘disaster’ shows how enormous the loss of a loved one can be, and how different from all the other losses mentioned before.

Ana Olinto · 23 April 2007

bishop, hopkins, chinese classics… good taste! do you like pound, eliot, sappho, tu fu?

my name is ana
cheers

Arlene Allen · 2 June 2007

Maybe it’s my age but I read differently into this piquant (is that the word?) poem. I see it as a wry (and very touching) poem about facing personal tragedy with honesty.

To me, it’s about someone who is experiencing the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease. At first, you learn to lose little things and you get upset but life goes on. Then you find you are losing more important things. Slowly, you realize that you’re going to keep on losing things and you can’t do anything about it anyway, so you have to accept it.

Then, she continues, your memories of your past experiences are lost. And, ultimately, you experience the biggest loss of all, your “Self” that you have learned to be (the joking voice, the gestures) that you thought “belong” to you since you created them and experienced them through all the stages of life.

What she is saying is that she knows that she be experiencing this biggest loss of all.

She’s not going down without a fight, even if she has to write everything down in order to remember.

Anyway, that’s my interpretation.

Rowden Dayna E CPT NGVA · 4 June 2007

The author of this poem appears to have experienced a loss so profound that she is forced to continuously remind herself that she can recover from the loss. In order to lessen the pain, she compares her loss items she has lost in the past, such as keys and watches. She later goes on to recollect, to a greater extent, her coping with the loss of houses and even a beloved hometown or country. The loss for the author is so deep that she continuously reminds herself that she can master her loss and not the opposite. As she grow maudlin and recalls the memory of her friend she lost, you can image she is getting more and more sad. When she says the words, “Write it,” she is convincing her that this loss is not a disaster (despite the fact that she feels that way) by almost forcing herself to write the words, and she tells herself she can survive this loss. Imagine a woman starting off by saying “Yeah, I’ve lost my keys, and I’ve lost a watch - no big deal. I even lost 3 homes and may never see my home country again. I survived.” Later, as her sadness grows deeper because of her memories, she finally tells herself, “So, if you made it through all that, you can survive this interminable pain you feel now.”

DAYNA E. ROWDEN

David Sholes · 5 June 2007

June 2007. The Art of Losing Isn’t Hard to Master. I’m watching my marriage fall apart. It’s been going on for some time and we’re getting closer and closer. Last week we divided our belongings - on paper. This week we are communicating only by email - even through we are in the same house. I know all too well what my contributions to the problem have been. I know all too well what I must change in order to avoid the final fall. I am AWARE. And yet….. And Yet. Awareness isn’t enough. Awareness in itself doesn’t correct my course of action. Awareness in itself doesn’t make me a person whom my wife wants to continue to be with. I still have to TAKE ACTION. I can be aware and still watch myself make all the same time-worn mistakes and missteps that I’ve been making all along. Watch myself as if watching someone else do exactly the wrong thing - and screaming at them “nooooo don’t do it!”.

This is the art of losing. To know that you are losing. To desire not to lose. To know what must happen in order not to lose. But to continue to lose anyway. It is an Art, and it is a Tragedy. And Ms. Bishop is correct – It’s not hard to master.

Olympia Critikou · 20 July 2007

Loosing, per se, may not be a disaster
When it is not your life or your soul you loose in the matter

But the art of loosing
Which you may not even have to try to master

Can be a disaster
Until you get to realize how well this art of loosing you master

Olympia

A.J. Carrillo · 3 October 2007

Bishops poem is wonderful. Note that this is about the loss of her (female) lover that she had when she lived in Brazil. This is, as someone pointed out, a villanelle, hence the repetition. And finally, the poetry in the last few lines in extraordinary. You’ll notice that the rhythm is beautifully choked up…lots of glottal stops, signifying that she’s trying to hold back the tears and is having trouble controlling her speech. You’ll also want to know that she is from New England, and, god bless them, women from that area tend to refrain from showing their emotions. Doesn’t it make for much deeper, evocative poetry?

AJ

Julie1050 · 24 January 2008

What got from this was that she was writing to convince herself that losing a loved one (the one with the joking voice) isn’t so bad… But really you get to the last stanza and you see that though she is trying she can’t convince herself… And she says (Write it!) to herself so she can admit that maybe she is wrong and that her loss is harder than she would have thought.

Cara

Ngangbam Singh · 25 February 2008

Serendipity!

I came across this beautiful villanelle in an equally beautiful movie called ‘In Her Shoes’.

‘In Her Shoes’ is a movie about two sisters with nothings in common other than their shoes size.

In the movie, Maggie (Cameron Diaz) the flighty of the sisters, reads ‘One Art’ to a blind old patient (a one-time english professor who realises the girl is suffering from dyslexia and intent to help her overcome by making her read).

I found the poetry really lovely and true then, but never thought, I would live in each line someday.

By the opening lines the poetry may appear something gloomy/bemoaning/giving up. (and few readers still prefer to argues)

On the contrary it is rather a very encouraging poetry which will give one a reason to be practical and to carry on.

Bishops started with

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.

She is right! how hard one try and how careful one is, certain things are bound to be lost, someday.

In her second, third and forth tercets she went on explaining small small losses like loss of door key / badly spent time / places / names / loved houses and a very pertinent one (mother’s watch) sure you would have done it ! in your childhood.

She repeated asserts herself “art of losing is no hard to master” tells to prepare for and accept losses.

Losses come in various forms, from badly spent time to losing your hometown.

Of all the most beautiful is the last quatrain,

—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.

The use of the word like “Even”, “i shan’t have lied”, “evident”, “writes it!” et. al. tells that this is the major loss that she has been preparing to overcome.

—Even losing you (the joking voice, a gesture

I love) ,

- must be a very close one

I shan’t have lied. It’s evident

the art of losing’s not too hard to master

- maybe she would have had lost all hope before

(Write it!)

- now she is firm that she would live through, but she misses (???) and still carries the pain.

The poetry is beautiful and true ‘you may live through’

but no ! “The art of losing is hard to master”

Haridev Ngangbam

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Ngangbam Singh · 26 February 2008

Good one

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Ruth E. Thaler-Carter · 28 February 2008

Is this the Margaret Shank who lived in DC and belonged to WIW years ago? If so, please let me know!

Ruth

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Ruth E. “I can write about anything!” (TM) Thaler-Carter* www.writerruth.com Author/Publisher, “Get Paid to Write! Getting Started as a Freelance Writer”

Co-owner, Communication Central (www.communication-central.com) Newsletter Editor, national EFA, Assn. for Women in Communications- Rochester

muttaleb · 14 March 2008

The art of loosing..well ryhmed , hidden yet felt music.Even though the subject matter is may seem childish ,the content made it wisdom . Material things are never lost but misplaced ,one may run into them at a point .The spiritual losses are eternal ..Here one need to be an arist to overcome the resulted empitiness .
Mottalib
KUWAIT

SAJ04 · 31 March 2008

One Art.
Had I read this poem thirty years ago, I would have had a much different take on it, than I have since losing loves and places. It is beautifully written to reflect the art of losing, but to me, they are all devastating. I feel a connectedness to Elizabeth Bishop because of this poem. I have printed it out to be read at my funeral……hopefully not for many many years to come. Susan Clark
Madison, CT

abc · 4 May 2008

I think a lot of people who have commented on this poem saying that it sounds flippant have lost out on the poem’s true meaning. Although she says the art of losing isn’t so hard to master the tone of the poem if you observe is one of denial Its like she’s trying to convince herself that she’s okay with the loss and doesn’t care about the things she’s lost when in fact the very opposite of that is true. Observe the last few lines of the poem, its like she’s trying extra hard to sound careless about the loss of that special someone in her life when in reality the loss has been eating her from inside.