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Today, on May 17th, 2008, the site contains 193 poets, 8,680 poems and 4,481 comments.
Elizabeth Bishop - One Art

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.

Added: on February 5th, 2007 at 3:39 AM | Viewed: 51120 times | Comments (43)


One Art - Comments and Information

Poet: Elizabeth Bishop
Poem: One Art

Poem of the Day on:
Oct 20 2004

Comment 43 of 43, added on March 22nd, 2008 at 12:48 PM.

The poem is profound. One can see the reminiscences of life's little losses. However, if one were to loose these things by design, by design to give up, these "losses" can help everybody to conquer material and physical bonds. Developing on this thread, the poem "if" by Rudyard Kipling describes how to give up things without ruminating.

N J Srinivasulu from India
Comment 42 of 43, added on October 18th, 2007 at 9:04 AM.

"one art" is a beautiful poem.i love it because its meaning is so natural and pure.we all lose things or ppl we love in life ...and the worst part is that we cant change it nor can we control how things happen.
and then there comes a point wen weve lost so many times at the hands of life and fate that we get used to the pain.and its a "disaster" no more.it ceases to hurt where it used to bleed.
and so we realise, that the art of losing isnt so hard to master after all.tear!

sania ali from Pakistan
Comment 41 of 43, added on February 5th, 2007 at 3:39 AM.

I disagree wth peoples comments that this poem was nothing until the movie, it just gave a new audience a chance to make their own veiw of it. Does it matter where people find out new things as long as they find them??
The poem to me is one that shows how easy things are to lose, that no matter how much we pretend it doesnt matter. That despite that ease, if we care about it & even if we act like it doesnt, somewhere inside it will always be...a disaster.

Davd J

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