Comment 45 of 46, added on December 2nd, 2008 at 2:55 PM.

I never heard of this poem until I saw the movie in her shoes wl Cameron Diaz & Toni Collette. Now it's my favorite poem!!!!

Lesly from United States

Comment 43 of 46, 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 41 of 46, 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

Comment 39 of 46, added on June 17th, 2006 at 4:41 PM.

“One Art” is written in the repetitive structure of the villanelle to reinforce the habitual nature of the speaker’s losses. The effective repetitions of the villanelle also supports the perspective of the poem. Bishop reviews, or puts into perspective, a lifetime of losses. Some of the losses are minor - “the lost door keys, the hour badly spent”, the memories. Some of losses are major, like houses, cities and a loved one. In looking back at all these losses, Bishop emphasizes through repetition that none of them, in perspective, amounted to “disaster” -lines 3, 4, 12 and 19. To Bishop the “art of losing” – lines 1, 6, 12 and 17 – is natural for everyone because it is inherent in the nature of things and people that there is an “intent to be lost” – lines 2 and 3. The art of losing then is so natural for humans that it is not a hard one to “master” – lines 1, 6, 12 and 18.

The speaker’s attitude is one of acceptance despite the emotion and time wasted looking for what we have lost. Sometimes we spend so much time looking for lost items like “door keys” we get frustrated and it seems like a disaster at the time.

At the end of the poem Bishop has convinced herself that her repetitive losses can be survived. With their slight but suggestive variations, the repetitive descriptions of loss - and the realization that they are not disasters - become the method by which Bishop’s lesson can be passed through to us as well as to the speaker herself.
The formal structure of the villanelle actually increases the emotional tone of the poem and makes us understand the personal sense of loss that Bishop feels in writing this poem.
Finally, in “One Art” Bishop talks about the need to write about losses, demonstrating an understanding that writing puts these losses into perspective. This way, in recognizing our losses we can come to terms with them and prepare ourselves for the future losses that must naturally come.


Rinda Suparatana from Canada

Comment 37 of 46, added on May 26th, 2006 at 6:28 PM.

When I last looked at it this website the poem was viewed some 37,000 times. I disagree with the statement "this poem was nothing until almost half the population" saw the movie and read it. This poem has always been and will always be remarkable.

Andrea from Hungary