In One Art How Does the Repeated Line in the Poem Change Meaning as the Poem Progresses
Similarities Between Loss and Art
Throughout Elizabeth Bishop'south "I Art" she uses repetition to emphasize the phrase "the art of losing isn't hard to master." (ln 1). Bishop initially makes this statement with confidence, but equally the poem progresses the conviction of the voice wanes and past the final stanza the reader finds themself thinking the opposite of what the poem initially establishes with conviction. Through the use of literary tools similar rhythm and repetition Bishop shifts the voice of this piece of work from confident and assertive to weak and contradicting thereby defeating the goal information technology set out for itself in the first line. The art of losing is indeed, very difficult to master.
In the offset three stanzas of the poem Bishop asserts with confidence that many "things" in life are intent on becoming lost. In the second line of this first stanza the emphasis of the rhythm falls on the word "filled" (ln two). In the third line the accent falls on the words "loss" (ln 3) and "lost" (ln iii). The juxtaposition of "filled" with "loss" and "lost" is interesting because the words are contradicting. The stanza goes from filled to lost. The idea conveyed is that losing things is inevitable, and so nothing is permanent. Bishop asserts confidence with a commanding tone and giving the reader instructions. This tin can be seen in the caesura in line four in betwixt twenty-four hour period and accept: "day. Take" (ln four). This forces the reader to pause for a moment and places the accent on the word "Accept" (ln 4). The poem's rhythm begins to speed upwards in the 3rd stanza considering it is almost entirely an enjambment. The discussion "losing" is repeated, followed each fourth dimension by two words that compliment each other with ingemination: "And then practice losing further, losing faster:" (ln 7) The repetition of the word losing causes the reader to start to speed up, equally does the alliteration of the words "farther" and "faster". This is a connected display of knowledge and confidence on the office of Bishop because of the speed which it is relayed to the reader. There are no pauses and everything runs fluidly.
Throughout each of these stanzas the phrase "The art of losing isn't difficult to master." (ln 1) has been repeated. The repetition of this phrase diminishes its potency because it is stressed and repeated and so often. A lot of poetryis built on the technique of repetition only this phrase juts out. It is a cleft in the façade of Bishop'southward confidence. In the line "The art of losing isn't hard to master." (ln 1) the contraction "isn't" (ln one) is unstressed while the word "difficult" (ln i) carries the stress and therefore the emphasis in the rhythm of the line. The stress on "hard" brings a tension between the sound of the sentence and the meaning Bishop intended. This contradiction of construction against context frustrates the reader's expectations when they end reading. In this example the use of repetition causes the reader to doubt Bishop's conviction and confidence.
In addition to the diminishing trust the reader has in the narrator's confidence, another important shift takes place equally the poem comes to a close. Bishop begins to emphasize the concept of the number two. This poem is a villanelle in which at that place are just ii rhymes throughout. This concept of two fits the form of the verse form. The author Brett Candlish Millier points out "Bishop conceived the poem as a villanelle from the start, and the play of "twos" within information technology – two rivers, two cities, the lost lover means not existence "two" anymore – suggests that the 2-rhyme villanelle is a form appropriate to the content." (Millier, 123). "Ii cities" (ln thirteen) and "two rivers" (ln 14) accept been lost. The stress of syllables in both lines falls on the pronunciation of the discussion "ii". This trend moves the poem towards a binary human relationship, something that contains two elements. Here the technique of repetition makes the reader call up of relationships which comprise 2 people. This foreshadows of the final stanza in which Bishop talks about a loved one whom they have lost.
In stanza four at that place is a noticeable change in the tone of Bishop. The first line of stanza 4 contains a caesura and so that the reader is forced to suspension for a moment "I lost my mother's sentry. And" (ln 10). After the reader begins to read the next judgement they are stopped once over again past an exclamation mark "And wait!" (ln ten). The verse form is slowing down.
Bishop's lack of confidence comes to a head in the final stanza. The starting time line starts with a hyphen which ("– Fifty-fifty losing you lot" (ln 16) forces a pause in the rhythm and makes it announced that the vocalisation is stuttering. This line is also broken upwardly with the employ of parenthesis which conveys that Bishop is deviating into a flashback. The parenthesis line is broken up over 2 lines. The emphasis of the rhythm falls on the first phrase of the next line: "I honey)" (ln 17). This is the first time Bishop has spoken of loving something directly. The amending of the phrase "the art of losing isn't hard to master;" (ln 1) to "the art of losing'southward not besides hard to chief" (ln 18) weakens it by adding additional words and breaking up the contractions into full words while creating new contractions. This slows downward the reader. The potency of the phrase "the fine art of losing's not hard to master" (ln 18) is augmented because the reader reads it differently. It is seen in a new light. The previous three times the reader read the phrase it was uniformly worded so that by the third time the reader read right over it. Breaking up the contractions allows Bishop to slow the reader down and possibly take notice of its meaning.
The poem'due south last word is disaster. The final line of every verse ended with either the word disaster or main. The reader gets a sense of a struggle between the two words. One wants to overcome disaster. To overcome is to main. Therefore, throughout the entire poem at that place is a constant struggle between main and disaster. Every bit Millier notes, "More than one time in the drafts of Bishop's published poems, one finds that she came to express in the final draft nearly the opposite of what she started out to say," (Millier, 123). Losing, much like art, is an uncontrollable external strength. To master it is almost impossible. It strikes without warning. It is not tangible then it is hard to grasp. There is no equation or learned mode to principal art or loss. They are as pliable every bit the current of air.
Bishop, Elizabeth. "One Fine art." Poetry in English: An Anthology. Ed. M.50. Rosenthal. New York: Oxford, 1987. 103-104. Print.
Millier, Brett Candlish. "Elusive Mastery: The Drafts of Elizabeth Bishop's "1 Art"." New England Review (1990-) Vol. 13. No. two (Winter, 1990): 121-129. PDF.
Source: http://blogs.cofc.edu/contemporary-american-poetry/2020/10/09/similarities-between-loss-and-art/