Critical Analysis of One Art Poem
Critical Analysis of "One Art" Poem
“The art of losing isn’t hard to master; so many things seem filled with the intent to be lost that their loss is no disaster” (lines 1-3). In order to understand the meaning of the poem “One Art,” its opening lines provide the foundation for the whole. Due to the fact that so many things intent to be lost it should not seem disastrous when they are actually lost, yet somehow it still is a disaster.
The paradox of this statement is evident by a combination of the poem’s opening and closing lines. The opening lines seem to say that when something follows its nature—its intent— it is not a disaster and should, therefore, not be viewed as one. Yet the closing lines, “—Even losing you…It’s evident the art of losing’s not too hard to master though it may look like (Write it!) like disaster” (lines 16-19), contradict the opening lines because the speaker is trying to convince his or herself of the truth of the paradox that it is not a disaster to lose a person if he or she intended to be lost.
The progression of increased value of “things” lost continues to contribute to the poem’s paradoxical meaning by beginning with items of little value “lost door keys…hour…places…names”, increasing to items of greater value “mother’s watch…houses…cities…rivers…continent”, ultimately ending with the loss of the most valued—a person (lines 5,8.10,11,13,14,16). This shows that the speaker is trying to desensitize him or herself to loss. In other words, if he or she considers all the other losses in life that were not disasters, it will make this loss of a person not a disaster but paradoxically it still is disastrous.
The meaning also becomes clear though the speakers mantra evident in the rhyming and repetition of disaster and master. In stanzas 1, 3, 5, and 6, the speaker ends with the word disaster. In stanzas 1, 2, 4 and 6, the speaker uses the phrase “the art of losing isn’t hard to master.” This creates a kind of mantra that a person would likely use to convince him or herself of something that he or she does not really believe. It is as if the speaker believes that if he or she tells him or herself that it is not hard...