One Art (Elizabeth Bishop)

Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night was the first and One Art is the other really famous villanelle, I think. From the little I know about Elizabeth Bishop's life this poem is pretty autobiographical. Not sure how she lost her love, if she ever did, but I do know that she did live and lose homes in many countries.

Villanelles are ridiculously complicated and difficult to write. Which is why, in canon, there are so few--two might be the official count. Wikipedia describes the form: "A villanelle has only two rhyme sounds. The first and third lines of the first stanza are rhyming refrains that alternate as the third line in each successive stanza and form a couplet at the close." The rigidity of this form inspires greatness, I think, in equally great poets.

I like the attitude of N in the poem. The losing, the forgetting of things, even important things, is treated almost as a game. The process seems glib. So, it comes as a shock of human honesty when this line comes: "though it may look like (Write it!) like disaster." And suddenly, the rigid form makes perfect sense when compared to poem's content. N is holding back deep emotions and is probably seconds from crashing, from bawling. Forms like villanelle are best suited when they add to the poem's content, I believe.

Favorite line: "The art of losing isn't hard to master"