During the span of one’s lifetime, a lot of things come and go. Losing people or even things seem to be a common occurrence for everyone and it often brings sadness or grief. Elizabeth Bishop talks about loss in her poem titled “One Art,” acquiring a posture that promotes healing and the acceptation of it. Listing things she lost, the author talks about the commonness of losing and expresses that, while some might be easy to overcome, others can hurt people at a deeper level.
Loss is a common thing in life, because of this, one should get used to it. People lose things every time, from the more common to the most special. By saying that things are “filled with the intent / to be lost” (736), Bishop conveys that losing is a really common thing.
Imagine that the person you love most in the world dies. How would you cope with the loss? Death and grieving is an agonizing and inevitable part of life. No one is immune from death’s insidious and frigid grip. Individuals vary in their emotional reactions to loss. There is no right or wrong way to grieve (Huffman, 2012, p.183), it is a melancholy ordeal, but a necessary one (Johnson, 2007). In the following: the five stages of grief, the symptoms of grief, coping with grief, and unusual customs of mourning with particular emphasis on mourning at its most extravagant, during the Victorian era, will all be discussed in this essay (Smith, 2014).
Elizabeth Bishop’s “One Art” is a retrospective contemplation on how it should be easy to deal with losses. The poem is structured as a villanelle and, as such, has a refrain. The refrain does not change structurally but, it’s meaning changes as the poem progresses. Bishop achieved this mainly through the evolution of imagery in the villanelle which moves from superficial objects to references of places and people that are deeply personal to the speaker. The speaker’s break in her confident façade in the final stanza also contributes to the change in the refrain’s meaning as it reveals how the speaker is not so unaffected by losses. Likewise, the repetition of disaster helps frame the evolution of the refrain’s meaning as the word is used in different contexts. Last but not least, the refrain’s structure and diction allow it the flexibility needed for the meaning to change.
In “One Art,” Elizabeth Bishop does a fantastic job at developing her theme by clearly stating her plot, letting the audience in on her element, and allowing her theme to shine. She lets it be known that her losses upset her, but she remains optimistic throughout most of the work. Bishop presents her thoughts in a poetic way while still allowing her true meanings to show. The ability to do this so well shows how great of a writer Elizabeth Bishop really is. “One Art” is a wonderful example of a truly exemplary poem about someone’s raw
Though most have a desire to leave earth and enter eternal life peacefully, without any sorrow, the departure of a loved one can be despondent. Previously in 2011, my grandfather passed away due to heart failure. It was an arduous battle, not only for my grandfather, but also for the close knit family surrounding him. His battle with heart failure enabled me to create unforgettable memories with him, even in his final days. Laughing together, playing together and learning significant values about life together made me grow to become a more mature and wise person. Therefore, my personal experience is entwined with empathy because the death of my grandfather has made me realize how dismal it is to lose someone important. It also interplays with self-interest because I have grown as an individual to deal with the ache that is attached to losing a family member. It has helped me to realize how beautiful the gift of life is. Stephen Dunn, the poet behind Empathy and my story are connected because they both involve the feeling of empathy for others and the self-interest of an individual. They help us to grow and learn about ourselves and the emotions of
Grief is pain of the mind often on account of something someone have experienced in the past or something someone are presently experiencing. The message and feelings of grief are often conveyed through poems, books and films. The novel ‘Two weeks with the Queen’ written by Morris Gleitzman displays the emotional journey that Colin takes coming to terms with his younger brother’s terminal illness. Robert Redford’s Film ‘The Horse Whisperer’ shows the break up in a family when grace the only child experiences great sadness and loss after losing her best friend in a tragic horse riding accident. The poem ‘Mid Term Break’ written by Seamus Heaney shows how a young boy’s life is turned upside down with the death of his younger brother.
Loss and isolation are easy, yet difficult to write about. They are easy because every human being can empathize with loneliness. If someone denies this, they are lying because loneliness is a common feeling, anyone can relate. It’s hard because we don’t discuss loneliness or loss publicly very often, and when we do, we forget about it quickly. These poems contrast each other by speaking of the different types of loneliness and isolation, distinguishing between the ones of loss, and isolation in a positive perspective.
Losing things that mean the most to you is always hard . people deal with loss in different way . That’s what makes us human . even though we act directly to things that have value to us , we all have the same feeling . Maybe just a different order of things. The two speakers in “We grow accustomed to the Dark” and “Before I got my eye put out” show that people take loss in different ways . What we should learn from the two poems is we should grow and move on for loss but never completely loss it
life after the death of a loved one. It is a request from the poet on
During some point any many lives, someone had lost a loved one and weren’t sure how to properly mourn for them. Their death led to a path of agony and despair for the living that can’t handle to feel as their emotions died as well. It’s always hard to accept that the one you love is gone, but reality takes a stab at you telling you to wake up. In Emily Dickinson’s “After Great Pain” piece, she examines the series of steps every person has gone through now or in the future.
Love can take many shapes and forms. There are many different kinds of love between human beings. Though it is often overlooked, intentionally or not, loss comes hand in hand with love; it is the second face of love that no one wants to see or experience. With love comes the potential to lose it as well. Nicole Krauss’s book, The History of Love, is really about loss.
The descriptive, vibrant language of Elizabeth Bishop transcends through time to appeal to every reader in all of her poems. What I admire the most about Elizabeth’s poetry is its combination of detailed, imaginative description and intriguing insight. Bishop has a keen eye for detail and she transforms the visual images she observes into poetic language. She deals with a number of themes including death, loss, childhood, domesticity and the resilience of the human spirit. Bishop’s poems are rooted in personal experience, but have a genuine universal appeal.
... they didn’t go. And lastly, she hears more noises until a hole is dug and it’s her old dog. She is happy to see her dog, but even the dog has forgotten her because he merely digs the whole to bury his bone as a hiding place. So, the main themes of loss interpreted in this poem are loss of love, loss of hope, loss of memory, loss of remembrance, and loss of importance.
There are various literary devices used by Elizabeth Bishop in the poem “One Art.” They include metaphors, personification, symbolism, alliteration, and rhyme. Through repetition and metaphor, she asserts that losing things is a small matter as compared to losing a loved one. In the first line, she claims that “The art of losing isn’t hard to master.” This opening stanza adopts a relatively apathetic tone, which emanates from the speaker’s pretentious indifference towards suffering. Bishop repeats this line several times throughout the poem in lines 6 and 12 which implies that losing material items isn’t such a big deal. In the final repetition of the first line, she uses the word “too.” This proposes that it is challenging to master, though
Funeral Blues by W. H. Auden is a short poem that illustrates the emotions that he is dealing with after the love of his life passes away. The tone of this piece evokes feelings that will differ depending on the reader; therefore, the meaning of this poem is not in any way one-dimensional, resulting in inevitable ambiguity . In order to evoke emotion from his audience, Auden uses a series of different poetic devices to express the sadness and despair of losing a loved one. This poem isn’t necessarily about finding meaning or coming to some overwhelming realization, but rather about feeling emotions and understanding the pain that the speaker is experiencing. Through the use of poetic devices such as an elegy, hyperboles, imagery, metaphors, and alliterations as well as end-rhyme, Auden has created a powerful poem that accurately depicts the emotions a person will often feel when the love of their live has passed away.
Approaching a topic as broad as loss can be a simple step; however, translating one's own attitude and perspective of the common experience can be a complex idea to communicate without a clear and organized transition between thoughts. Bishop's ability to craft this poem about such a variable and poignant concept with the lucidity and emphasis with which she does is evident in her unique use of language and structure.