26 pages 52 minutes read

One Art

Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1976

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Overview

Throughout her life, Elizabeth Bishop (1911-1979) suffered many losses. Her father died before her first birthday and her mother entered a mental institution when Bishop was only five, leaving her to the guardianship of maternal and paternal grandparents. Later, Bishop’s lover committed suicide in Brazil, prompting Bishop’s return to the US. “One Art” (1976) alludes to several of these prominent losses, though the poem objectively approaches loss. “One Art” defines loss as a special form of art capable of mastery and practice like poetry. Despite loss, or perhaps because of it, Bishop crafted tight, detailed, and descriptive poems. Her poetry resisted more expressive, contemporary literary styles like the Confessional poetry for which her best friend Robert Lowell was known.

Poet Biography

Elizabeth Bishop (1911-1979) published roughly 100 poems during her lifetime. She garnered acclaim, even becoming poet laureate of the US and earning the Pulitzer Prize in 1956, but it wasn’t until after her death that critics truly began realizing her impact on American poetry. Bishop chose quality over quantity, which is why she didn’t publish as consistently as other poets of her time. She preferred revision and exactitude, precision and attention to detail; one critic likened her crafted poems to watching intricate mobiles spin.

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