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One Art - Elizabeth Bishop

I don't often post on poetry. Not because I never read it, but simply because it is such an easy way to reveal one's ignorance. Never mind: the poem I'm writing about today has touched a nerve without even going near my brain, so I feel safe writing about it. The poem is called One Art, and is by Elizabeth Bishop. I won't post it all here, as that would infringe copyright, but here is a link to the whole thing.

One Art is a villanelle, and the most famous poem in this form is Dylan Thomas' Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night. I'm sure you know it:

Do not go gentle into that good night,                      a
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;          b
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.                 a

 

The verse follows the rhyming structure a-b-a throughout, making it feel tight and highly structured. In addition to this restriction, the first line is repeated at the end of the second verse, then the third line is repeated at the end of the third verse, then the first line is repeated at the end of the fourth verse, and so on. So the poem turns and turns upon itself. In the best villanelles this structure produces intensity, and in the worst it becomes simply ridiculous.

One Art loosens the structure of the villanelle just a little, so whilst it retains the impact that the villanelle can provide it doesn't become claustrophobic.

It begins with whimsy, and continues in much the same vein:

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.
The objects being lost become more consequential: a house, a city, a continent. Yet they also become more fantastical, which is why the greatest loss, in the last verse, hits so very hard that it takes one's breath away. The pretence that losing anything or anyone is easy, dissolves in front of us on the page. The acknowledgement of the pain of loss is so difficult for the poet, so close to disaster, that she only achieves it with a running start. In my head she runs and jumps across the stream, and barely makes the other side. That's the only way I have to describe it.
—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.
I'd encourage you to follow the link and read the whole poem, as it's about as good as it gets. But villanelles are also great poems to have fun writing. The structure is playful, you are freed from having to write so very many lines- all you really need is a flexible first stanza, and then fun is in getting the whole thing to hang together. There's a little guide here.
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Posted on Thursday, October 4, 2007 at 03:59PM by Registered CommenterBecca | CommentsPost a Comment

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