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.

In One Art, Bishop writes about the pain of losing and how to deal with said
loss, and uses life experience and repetition to emphasize the point.
1. This poem has what structure?
The poem is made up of 5 tercets, and followed by a quatrain ending.

2. What is the tone of the poem? How is it created?

It has a casual tone created by the rhyming and the casual imagery (the
watch, the keys), and it masks the more serious and chaotic internal struggle
the protagonist has with losing things.

3. Are there any important shifts in the poem? Where?

There is one, at the start of the quatrain, with “even losing you.”

4. Is anything repeated in this poem (sounds, diction, images, connotation)? Why might that
be important?
The word disaster is repeated many times, showing the aforementioned internal struggle,
with the rhyming repetition masking it in casual language.

5. Does Bishop set up any contrasts?

There may be a contrast where Bishop talks about disaster: “none of these will bring
disaster” and “though it may look like disaster”.

6. How does the structure add or complicate meaning in the poem?

The structure emphasize the tone shift when it hits the quatrain, because there is a
change in poetic structure at the shift.

7. What does the speaker express about loss?

Bishop’s main expression about loss is that though it is hard, loss is temporary and we will
not be harmed by it, and that it is no disaster, so it is better to move on and be happier with
ourselves.
 Amoretti LXXV: One Day I Wrote her Name
BY EDMUND SPENSER
One day I wrote her name upon the strand,
But came the waves and washed it away:
Again I wrote it with a second hand,
But came the tide, and made my pains his prey.
"Vain man," said she, "that dost in vain assay,
A mortal thing so to immortalize;
For I myself shall like to this decay,
And eke my name be wiped out likewise."
"Not so," (quod I) "let baser things devise
To die in dust, but you shall live by fame:
My verse your virtues rare shall eternize,
And in the heavens write your glorious name:
Where whenas death shall all the world subdue,
Our love shall live, and later life renew."

In Ammoretti, Spenser shows the struggle to immortalize his lover by using

rhyme and pessimistic diction to show the impossibility and issues in doing so.
1. Who are the characters in this poem?
I, the tide, and she

2. List and define any words you are unfamiliar with below. Look them up!
Assay- to attempt, or determine the content or quality of

3. This poem has what structure?

It is a sonnet (14 lines, 10 syllables usually)

4. What is the tone of the poem? How is it created?

The tone is almost pessimistic, and it is made by words like “decay,” “wiped out,” and
“mortal.”

5. Are there any important shifts in the poem? Where?

There is an important shift at line 9 where he says “Not so”.

6. Is anything repeated in this poem (sounds, diction, images, connotation)? Why might that
be important?
Waves and tide are repeated to show the washing away of his e orts to immortalize her
through imagery.

7. Does Spenser set up any contrasts?

Spenser sets up a contrast in the phrase “a mortal thing so to immortalize,” and with “to
die in dust, but you shall live in fame.”

8. How does the structure add or complicate meaning in the poem?

The structure does not really complicate the poem, but it does help it to ow
well with the rhyming people structure.

9. What does the speaker express about love? About writing?

That love can last forever if it can be preserved in things like memory and
writing can help to preserve that memory.