The poem I chose to do is “One Art” by Elizabeth Bishop. This poem is just describing several things that can be lost. She is also saying in this poem that just because it is lost doesn’t mean it’s a disaster and that everything will be fine. I think even though she is saying it is not hard to master the art of losing she is really feeling bad about this. When she says, “And, vaster, some realms I owned, two rivers, a continent. I miss them, but it wasn’t a disaster,” she sounds like she is trying to encourage someone even though it may be affecting her. When people usually give advice to others they are not completely honest to keep the other person from being worried. Throughout this poem it sounds as if she is giving advice to someone by the way she says things such as the quote just mentioned.

In Chapter five there were several techniques described that are used in this poem. One of those techniques was the sound units which are the syllables. In this poem she ends the first and last line of each stanza with the last two syllables rhyming. For instance master, disaster, faster, vaster, etc. Another technique mentioned in chapter five are implications. Throughout the poem she speaks of things she has lost and none of them were a disaster. She names things such as a mother’s watch or a house so that they can relate to the reader and the reader can imply whatever it means to them. As the poem progresses, she begins to name things such as a continent and someone in your life but still allowing the reader to imply what it means to them. So she is saying even for the hardest thing the art of losing isn’t hard to master. Another technique is the ordering of language. One specific thing I noticed concerning the ordering is that in the first half of the poem she is giving directions to the reader such as when she says, “Accept the fluster of lost door keys.” In the second half of the poem she speaks of things she has lost herself, for instance when she says, “I lost my mother’s watch.” She may have done this change to tell the reader what to do to master losing then show it easy it was for her by giving examples of things she has lost.

This poem was well written but I do not know the deeper meaning found from it. It was straightforward with everything it had to say. It was advice to anyone out there stressing over something they lost and ways to master dealing with it.