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Katlin Profile
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One Art


I mentioned this poem today in an email to a friend and decided to share it with all of you:

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.
 
Jan/15/2010, 3:21 pm Link to this post Send Email to Katlin   Send PM to Katlin
 
Dragon59 Profile
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Re: One Art


I recently wrote a review of Bishop's selected letters, which was named after this poem:

One Art, Reflected

It's nice to see that people are starting to realize that Bishop was a better poet than previous generations thought. Her poetry is currently riding a wave of rediscovery. I hope it's not just a fashionable trend, because there are a lot of great poems in there.

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Jan/15/2010, 6:31 pm Link to this post Send Email to Dragon59   Send PM to Dragon59
 
Terreson Profile
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Re: One Art


Thanks, Katfriend. I've always had a fondness for Bishop's poetry. I think it was she who showed me a way out when it comes to, what Pound called, the iamb's tendancy to "magnetize certain verbal sequences." Funny how she tended to feel more at home, more herself, when abroad. Aside from her poetry, the big thing I admire about her is that she stood up to, ended up rejecting, her mentor Marianne Moore who was forever looking to monitor her poetry, finding it naughty and improper.

Tere
Jan/15/2010, 7:56 pm Link to this post Send Email to Terreson   Send PM to Terreson
 
Katlin Profile
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Re: One Art


Dragon,

I enjoyed your review of Bishop's selected letters. I recently picked up a copy of Edgar Allan Poe & the Juke-box: Uncollected Poems, Drafts, and Fragments, which contains all of Bishop's unpulblished poems as well as all fifteen drafts of "One Art," some of them handwritten. I remember reading a review once that asked of Bishop's work, "Can a poet be considered great who only published ninety poems in her lifetime?" This volume demonstrates a point you also make in your review: Bishop was an exacting poet who often reworked poems for years before deeming them publishing worthy, and many of her poems never crossed that bar in her mind.

Every year Vassar College sponsors the Elizabeth Bishop poetry reading, which features a well-known poet reading his/her work. One year Sharon Olds was the featured poet, and she spent the first part of her reading talking about Bishop and reading some of her poetry. I thought Olds did a nice job paying tribute to someone whose poetry just might withstand the test of time.

I did not know that Bishop considered letter writing an art and taught a course on the topic late in her life. I am glad you noted that fact, however, and kept it in mind as your wrote your reveiw.

Here's a short essay on Bishop's influence and literary reception of late I thought you might be interested in:

http://www.literature-study-online.com/essays/bishop.html

Tere,

It sounds like Moore wasn't a mentor in the William Matthews's model but that Bishop was able to find her own way, while still being receptive to, and discerning about, the poetry of her closest poet friends.
Jan/17/2010, 10:11 am Link to this post Send Email to Katlin   Send PM to Katlin
 
Terreson Profile
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Re: One Art


Katfriend says: "It sounds like Moore wasn't a mentor in the William Matthews's model but that Bishop was able to find her own way, while still being receptive to, and discerning about, the poetry of her closest poet friends."

Well said. I hadn't thought of the case in that way. But I suspect you are right.

As for something else said upthread about whether or not a poet whose output is small can still be regarded a great poet, I don't recall any critic bringing the same question to bear on the collected poetry of Dylan Thomas. Talk about slim pickings!

Tere
Jan/17/2010, 3:38 pm Link to this post Send Email to Terreson   Send PM to Terreson
 


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