Again, in one fell swoop, all my petty irritations with The New York Times dissipated into nothingness with this interactive interpretation of Elizabeth Bishop’s much celebrated 1976 poem, “One Art” – a well put together analytical piece from the NYT critics, Parul Sehgal and Dwight Garner, enhanced through referencing Bishop’s drafts and an exposition of the poet’s methodology.
Elizabeth Bishop builds her poem with the consummate skill of one who has honed her craft; working up from a very concrete foundation – the loss of an object, keys perhaps – to that of the more transient – some place, be it near, like one’s home or the greater space that surrounds. And always lurking; pesky, ephemeral time – taken, wasted, forever lost, and so done in the interest of another loss. Loss multiplied, if you will.
Beginning with generalization, her distanced voice evolves into a personal address, and in the last stanza, a much more intimate loss is revealed – that of one loved. Has the lyrical self convinced one own self that such a loss can be conquered by rational means, as those others have been before? She doesn’t say, but as the poem concludes it’s to be supposed she is working on it still – mastering this art of losing.
And maybe she never succeeded in doing so, but Elizabeth Bishop certainly mastered the art of the villanelle; a composition form that she only used on this one occasion. Long live the villanelle!
Should the NYT not deem to let you in: Whilst very much copyrighted of course, “One Art” is available to be read all over the place, including here at the Poetry Foundation, along with a further selection of her works – me, I’ve always especially loved “At the Fishhouses”.
I herewith remind myself of a still outstanding book recommendation, given to me quite some time ago: “On Elizabeth Bishop” (Princeton University Press, 2015), an introduction to the life and work of this great American poet by the wonderful Irish writer, Colm Tóibín.