26 pages • 52 minutes read
One Art
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Literary Devices
Villanelle
A villanelle is a 19-line poem containing five tercets (three-line stanzas) and a quatrain (four-line stanza). Villanelles also repeat the first and third lines in the tercets in an alternating manner, and then combine the lines at the end of the quatrain. Repeated lines in this manner are known as refrains.
Villanelles also have a strict rhyme scheme. The tercets use an aba rhyme scheme:
a. The art of losing isn’t hard to master;
b. so many things seem filled with the intent
a. to be lost that their loss is no disaster. (Lines 1-3)
The quatrain implements an abaa rhyme scheme:
a. —Even losing you (the joking voice, a gesture
b. I love) I shan’t have lied. It’s evident
a. the art of losing’s not too hard to master
a. though it may look like (Write it!) like disaster. (Lines 21-24)
Bishop slightly varies the refrain in the quatrain. By referencing writing in her poem (known as metafiction), Bishop underscores her attempt at accepting loss by struggling with the villanelle form itself.
Enjambment
Enjambment happens when a poetic line continues onto the next line without an end-stop or punctuation at the end of the line. The final stanza of “One Art” provides an example:
—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. (Lines 21-24)
Lines 21-23 spill over onto the next line, causing movement and a sense of hesitation in the stanza. Bishop utilizes enjambment as a form of communication by showing herself briefly struggling with her earlier advice to accept loss. Moreover, enjambment helps the poem to flow. The reader’s eye jumps to the next line, becoming an active part of the poem’s movement.
Rhyme
Rhyme is when two or more words share sounds—often the end sound. For example, both “cry” and “fly” share the same end sound. There are also different types of rhymes. Slant rhyme includes words like “heavy” and “steady.” Slant rhyme often has the same vowel sound but different consonants. Identical rhyme is rhyming a word with itself, like “hope” and “hope.” Perfect rhyme takes place when words share the exact same ending sound, like “cry” and “fly.” While it is not necessary that poetry possess a definitive rhyme scheme, rhyme is still one of the most common poetic devices.
Related Titles
By Elizabeth Bishop
