One Art

What aspect of Elizabeth Bishop’s purpose for writing “One Art” is reflected in this excerpt?

• to persuade the reader that losing things is a skill

• to persuade the reader that losing things is a skill

• to describe to the reader a personal loss she has experienced

• to encourage the reader to accept loss as a fact of life

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Read the excerpt from Elizabeth Bishop’s “One Art.” 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 phrase “The art of losing isn’t hard to master” is repeated throughout the poem. What is the effect of this repetition?

• It helps to create a carefree tone in the poem.

• It reinforces the theme that loss is easy to deal with.

• It highlights the speaker's struggle with her own loss.

• It shows that all levels of loss should be treated equally.

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Read the excerpt from Elizabeth Bishop's "One Art." —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. Why does the poet include the phrase “(Write it!)” in the last line?

• to show that she is forcing herself to face her loss

• to show that she is joking about lost items

• to show that she thinks losing something is common

• to show that she thinks losing something is annoying

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What is significant about the title of the poem?

• It suggests we need to be singular (One) in our focus on making something good come from bad.

• It is short just like how we can never hold on to things or people for long.

• It suggests that we remove the pain of loss by first levelling out everything that we lose; from door keys to houses to people (One) and second by mastering the fact of losing through practise (Art)

• It shows we need to make art out of suffering.

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How does the form of the poem convey its meanings?

• The villanelle allows for a break in its pattern of tercets and tight rhyme, giving away to one quatrain with a repeated rhyme. Just as the structure cracks, as does the poetic voice.

• The villanelle shows us that loss is hard to master and brings great pain.

• The whole structure of the poem has regular rhymes and line lengths making it harmonic, hence a piece of beautifully constructed art.

• The form shows how the poet contains her feelings by having a regular structure.

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Which thing that she lost first conveys a sense of emotional investment?

• door keys

• names

• an hour

• mother's watch

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What word best describes the tone in the first stanza?

• monotonous

• matter-of-fact

• dull

• earnest

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Who is addressed at the end of the poem?

• the reader

• her dead mother

• a lover

• a lost lover

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Bishop uses unusual similes and images. Choose the simile from the following:

• "He hung a grunting weight"

• "While his gills were breathing in the terrible oxygen"

• "the dramatic reds and blacks of his shiny entrails"

• "Like medals with their ribbons frayed and wavering"

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Throughout her poem, Bishop deliberately makes use of Personification to help us to ...

• appreciate the fish as a character who has survived much, as we humans might.

• see the fish as more than simply a meal to be caught, killed, and forgotten.

• understand that we share the planet with creatures who may be more than we give them credit for.

• all of the above

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