“One Art” was written by the American poet Elizabeth Bishop. The poem is a villanelle, a traditional form that involves a fixed number of lines and stanzas and an intricate pattern of repetition and rhyme. Through this form, the poem explores loss as an inevitable part of life. The speaker considers what it means to experience loss over and over again, and whether it is truly possible to “master” the experience of loss and grief. “One Art” was included in Bishop’s final collection of poetry, Geography III, which was published in 1976.

• Read the full text of “One Art”

• “One Art” Summary

• “One Art” Themes

  • 

    The Inevitability and Pain of Loss

    Where this theme appears in the poem:

    • Lines 1-19

• Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “One Art”

  • Line 1

    The art of ... hard to master;

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 2-3

    so many things ...
    ... is no disaster.

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 4-6

    Lose something every ...
    ... hard to master.

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 7-9

    Then practice losing ...
    ... will bring disaster.

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 10-12

    I lost my ...
    ... hard to master.

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 13-15

    I lost two ...
    ... wasn’t a disaster.

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 16-17

    —Even losing you ...
    ... shan’t have lied.

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 17-19

    It’s evident ...
    ...  it!) like disaster.

    

    

    

    

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• “One Art” Symbols

  • 

    The Watch

    Where this symbol appears in the poem:

    • Line 10: “I lost my mother’s watch.”

• “One Art” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language

  • Aphorism

    

    

    

    

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    Where aphorism appears in the poem:

    • Line 1: “The art of losing isn’t hard to master;”
    • Line 6: “The art of losing isn’t hard to master.”
    • Line 12: “The art of losing isn’t hard to master.”
    • Line 18: “the art of losing’s not too hard to master”

  • Repetition

    

    

    

    

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    Where repetition appears in the poem:

    • Line 1: “The art of losing isn’t hard to master;”
    • Line 3: “to be lost that their loss is no disaster.”
    • Line 6: “The art of losing isn’t hard to master.”
    • Line 9: “to travel. None of these will bring disaster.”
    • Line 12: “The art of losing isn’t hard to master.”
    • Line 15: “I miss them, but it wasn’t a disaster.”
    • Lines 18-19: “the art of losing’s not too hard to master / though it may look like ( / Write /  it!) like disaster.”

  • Polyptoton

    

    

    

    

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    Where polyptoton appears in the poem:

    • Line 1: “losing”
    • Line 3: “lost,” “ loss”
    • Line 4: “Lose”
    • Line 5: “lost”
    • Line 6: “losing”
    • Line 7: “losing,” “losing”
    • Line 10: “lost”
    • Line 11: “loved”
    • Line 12: “losing”
    • Line 13: “lost,” “lovely”
    • Line 16: “losing”
    • Line 17: “love”
    • Line 18: “losing’s”

  • End-Stopped Line

    

    

    

    

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    Where end-stopped line appears in the poem:

    • Line 1: “master;”
    • Line 3: “disaster.”
    • Line 5: “spent.”
    • Line 6: “master.”
    • Line 7: “faster:”
    • Line 9: “disaster.”
    • Line 11: “went.”
    • Line 12: “master.”
    • Line 13: “vaster,”
    • Line 14: “continent.”
    • Line 15: “disaster.”
    • Line 19: “disaster.”

  • Enjambment

    

    

    

    

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    Where enjambment appears in the poem:

    • Lines 2-3: “intent / to”
    • Lines 4-5: “fluster / of”
    • Lines 8-9: “meant / to”
    • Lines 10-11: “or / next-to-last”
    • Lines 16-17: “gesture / I”
    • Lines 17-18: “evident / the”
    • Lines 18-19: “master / though”

  • Asyndeton

    

    

    

    

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    Where asyndeton appears in the poem:

    • Line 5: “lost door keys, the hour badly spent.”
    • Line 7: “losing farther, losing faster:”
    • Line 14: “some realms I owned, two rivers, a continent.”
    • Lines 16-17: “(the joking voice, a gesture / I love)”

  • Irony

    

    

    

    

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    Where irony appears in the poem:

    • Lines 1-19

  • Alliteration

    

    

    

    

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    Where alliteration appears in the poem:

    • Line 1: “losing,” “master”
    • Line 2: “many”
    • Line 3: “lost,” “loss”
    • Line 4: “Lose”
    • Line 5: “lost”
    • Line 6: “losing”
    • Line 7: “losing,” “farther,” “losing,” “faster”
    • Line 10: “lost,” “watch,” “look,” “last”
    • Line 11: “last,” “loved,” “went.”
    • Line 12: “losing”
    • Line 13: “lost,” “lovely”
    • Line 14: “realms,” “rivers”
    • Line 16: “losing,” “joking,” “gesture”
    • Line 17: “love,” “lied”
    • Line 18: “losing’s”
    • Line 19: “look,” “like,” “like”

  • Consonance

    

    

    

    

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    Where consonance appears in the poem:

    • Line 1: “art,” “losing,” “isn’t,” “hard,” “to,” “master”
    • Line 2: “so,” “many,” “seem,” “filled,” “intent”
    • Line 3: “lost,” “loss,” “disaster.”
    • Line 4: “Lose,” “something,” “day,” “Accept,” “fluster”
    • Line 5: “lost,” “door,” “badly,” “spent”
    • Line 6: “art,” “losing,” “isn’t,” “hard,” “master”
    • Line 7: “practice,” “losing,” “farther,” “losing,” “faster”
    • Line 8: “places”
    • Line 9: “to,” “travel,” “will,” “disaster.”
    • Line 10: “lost,” “my,” “mother’s,” “look,” “last”
    • Line 11: “last,” “loved,” “went”
    • Line 12: “art,” “losing,” “isn’t,” “hard,” “to,” “master”
    • Line 13: “lost,” “two,” “cities,” “lovely,” “vaster”
    • Line 14: “realms,” “owned,” “two,” “continent”
    • Line 15: “it,” “wasn’t,” “disaster.”
    • Line 16: “losing,” “joking,” “ gesture”
    • Line 17: “love,” “lied,” “It’s,” “evident”
    • Line 18: “art,” “losing’s,” “not,” “too,” “hard,” “to,” “master”
    • Line 19: “it,” “look,” “like,” “Write,” “it,” “like,” “disaster.”

  • Assonance

    

    

    

    

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    Where assonance appears in the poem:

    • Line 1: “art,” “hard,” “master”
    • Line 2: “things,” “filled,” “with,” “intent”
    • Line 3: “disaster”
    • Line 6: “master.”
    • Line 7: “practice,” “faster”
    • Line 8: “places,” “names”
    • Line 9: “disaster.”
    • Line 10: “lost,” “watch,” “last, or”
    • Line 11: “last”
    • Line 12: “art,” “hard,” “master.”
    • Line 13: “cities,” “vaster,”
    • Line 14: “rivers,” “continent”
    • Line 15: “miss ,” “it,” “disaster.”
    • Line 18: “art,” “losing’s,” “too,” “hard,” “to,” “master”
    • Line 19: “like,” “Write,” “like,” “disaster.”

• “One Art” Vocabulary

  Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.

  • Master
  • Intent
  • Fluster
  • Vaster
  • Realms
  • Gesture
  • Shan't
  • (Location in poem: Line 1: “master;”; Line 6: “master.”; Line 12: “master.”; Line 18: “master”)

• Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “One Art”

  • Form

  • Meter

  • Rhyme Scheme

• “One Art” Speaker

• “One Art” Setting

• Literary and Historical Context of “One Art”

• More “One Art” Resources

  • External Resources

    • The Bishop Archives at Vassar College — Elizabeth Bishop attended Vassar College and her papers are now stored in Vassar’s Special Collections. Visit the Vassar Archives & Special Collections website to learn more about Bishop’s papers stored at the library. 

    • Audio of “One Art” in Reaching for the Moon — A 2013 Brazilian film, Reaching for the Moon, explores Bishop’s life in Brazil and her relationship with the architect Lota de Macedo Soares. Although the movie misinterprets the poem “One Art” as about Bishop’s relationship with Soares—the poem was, in fact, about Bishop’s last partner, Alice Methfessel—the movie includes a recitation of the poem by the actress Miranda Otto, who played Bishop. In the scene, Bishop reads the poem to her friend Robert Lowell.

    • Biography of Elizabeth Bishop — Learn more about the poet's life and work.

    • The Drafts of “One Art” — Read more about Bishop’s writing process and how “One Art” changed over the course of 17 drafts in this essay at Modern American Poetry.

    • "Elizabeth Bishop's Art of Losing" — Read this article from The New Yorker to learn more about Bishop’s life, including the circumstances that gave rise to the poem “One Art.”

  • LitCharts on Other Poems by Elizabeth Bishop

    • Crusoe in England

    • Filling Station

    • First Death in Nova Scotia

    • Sestina

    • The Fish

    • The Man-Moth

    • The Mountain

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