Poem of the Day: "One Art"

isiscaughey has been sharing some favorite poems in honor of National Poetry Month, and though we're nearing the end of the month, I figure it's not too late to contribute some of my own. I'll hopefully be posting one a day, starting today with Elizabeth Bishop.

Elizabeth Bishop is one of the greatest poets of the 20th century, and "One Art" is one of her most famous poems. It's written in a form called villanelle, which features a pattern of repeated lines. In this case, the subtle variations in the repeated lines add a lot of impact. For anyone who thinks formal poetry is stodgy and boring, I hope this proves you wrong.

One Art
by Elizabeth Bishop

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.