One Art by Elizabeth Bishop - Essay Example

This short resume will show how the poem, written in the later part of her life, represented double magic in which no one has yet to mention. "One Art" is today considered her most famous poem as it represents her personal feelings. (Epstein 52) It also represents a person towards the end of his life talking about the importance of living. It represents a person looking back on his life advising a young listener how he should live his own life. Her poetry is such that reading it out loud represents the music of the verse.

Some say this poem is ironic. Shall it be read out loud, one hears that the first verse becomes the explanation that life is full of trials and tribulations. Of course, we know in retrospect that she is talking about her own life but what if the listener knows nothing of her life, he hears that someone is giving advice. There will be problems, but learn the art of accepting. The second verse can be interpreted in two ways. She uses a child's interpretation of a horrible event. Or our imaginary storyteller is telling the young listener that losing keys and the consequences that follow, something we all worry about doing, are not important as there is so much worse that happens in life.

In the third verse, the person talking is an old man/woman. Ms. Bishop would be talking as though she is looking back on her life. Time has passed as life passes quickly. Memories fade as though one has lost something. As life progresses, it goes more quickly: "faster" and "farther". The magic in this verse is important to mention the biographical information of Ms. Bishop's life as the tone of the poem has changed. (Pritchard 9) Ms. Bishop is talking about her childhood which is important to mention that the watch is a metaphor of how life passes quickly.

It is also important to her as upon her mother's death, the asylum sent her her mother's watch. She has finally made the closure. She had had no contact with her from four years of age. It is also a childhood's interpretation of cause and effect. As she lost her mother's watch, she was responsible for her mother going insane. She moves from house to house through her childhood. Time and movement are important as is the use of the watch but this is the first time she uses the word "I". The old person and Ms.

Bishop converge. As using the form of a Villanelle of six verses and 19 lines, she uses the last three with the famous "I". Verse five can be Ms. Bishop or either the old person who would have lived through disasters which could mean wars or the plague of 1918. He has moved, implying he has been a refugee. Survival is what counts. When one becomes an adult material loss become larger but it does not matter. Her fascination with maps is apparent in the movement across oceans, continents. (Vendler 836) She is showing a sense of feeling.

In the last verse, anyone who experiences personal loss has regrets of what he or she could have done better in a relationship. The loss is overbearing. There is so much material loss in life that one can never compare it to a loss of an individual (her lover of 15 years). The use of (Write it!)is a question of putting everything on paper so it becomes eternal. As a stoic, she used "One Art" for anyone at the end of his life looking back. The material and the insignificant matters little, being sincere to the one who is loved does.

Loss is an inevitable part of life.