Posted by: Carolina Maine | July 25, 2008

One Art by Elizabeth Bishop

The day that I am having reminded me of this Villanelle:

One Art

The art of losing isn’t hard to master;

so many things seem filled with 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 of 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


Responses

  1. Nice poem!

  2. Thank you, Neilina (pretty photo). I’m glad you enjoyed the poem.


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