The title of the poem lets the reader know that the poem’s subject will be “one art”—implying that the “art” the poem will examine is one of many. Readers might expect this “art” to be a traditional kind of fine art such as painting or poetry. Yet, as the first line makes clear, what the poem will actually explore is “the art of losing.”
While this opening line sounds straightforward and direct—“The art of losing isn’t hard to master,” the speaker says—in fact this line, which will become the poem’s refrain, contains layers of meaning.
First, it is worth noting that the speaker describes the experience of losing—of going through loss, and living with loss—as an “art.” This suggests that one can learn to deal with loss in the same way one might learn another craft or art such as painting, poetry, or music. While the poem makes it clear that its subject is the art of losing, the word “art” also implicitly connects the poem’s subject to other kinds of art, including the art of poetry and the poem itself. From the beginning, then, the poem subtly connects the art it will examine with its own artfulness, implying that one way the speaker has “mastered” loss—or attempted to master loss—is through writing the poem itself.
The word “master” is also important. Traditionally, the word has been used in connection with the fine arts; the term “Old Masters,” for example, refer to Classical painters and artists such as Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci, who are considered “masters,” or experts and virtuosos, in their craft. This word, then, sustains the idea that the “art of losing” that the poem will explore is connected to other kinds of art—and that the work involved in “mastering” loss, just like the work involved in mastering any fine art, involves practice, discipline, and skill.
The opening line is also an aphorism, a remark that seems to convey a general truth about the world. On the surface, the speaker appears simply to be recounting this truth, suggesting that it’s not that hard to get used to or even become an expert at losing things. The speaker’s tone, which is confident and casual, reinforces the sense that this is an unquestionable fact.
At the same time, though, the reader might, even this early in the poem, start to ask questions. Is it really that easy to go through loss? Furthermore, if it isn’t hard to get used to losing things, then why write an entire poem about it? The aphorism at the poem’s beginning then, sets up a kind of double meaning in the poem: the speaker asserts that it’s not too hard to “master” loss, yet something else seems to move beneath the poem’s surface.