Loss In Vicki Harrison's One Art

Vicki Harrison once graciously described the grief that loss fathoms in few short words. Grief she says is, “like the ocean; it comes on waves ebbing and flowing. Sometimes the water is calm, and sometimes it is overwhelming. All we can do is learn to swim” (A Quote by Vicki Harrison). As I process these captivating words, I am reminded of writer Elizabeth Bishop in her work notably known as, “One Art”. In "One Art", Bishop writes of loss in such an apathetic and absent tone. It is quite evident that perhaps she as Harrison described after experiencing grief in high and low tides, has learned how to swim, and how to live with the pain. This numbness is prevalent in her writing and explanatory of the tones and moods Bishop has chosen for this

The writer all throughout the journey of this poem convinces readers that loss is not a difficult art to master. Throughout this journey, we as readers ask ourselves several questions that question whether or not the speaker, as she says, has truly mastered the art of loss. In the last stanza, she writes: "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” (One Art by Elizabeth Bishop | Poetry Foundation). The tone here reveals a lot to readers. We learn that the writer has experienced a loss of someone perhaps she adored. She says that even this loss is not difficult to master, though it may seem like a disaster. However, the tone here. renders us to believe that perhaps this was her attempt to mask the pain. Often it is easier for individuals, to place a bold front to shield the fact that they are not well. I believe this lovely work, was a testament of a writer's ability to convey this. However, moving towards the ending of this poem the writer may have realized an important thing that author John Green conveyed best, “The thing with pain is that it demands to be felt” (A Quote from The Fault in Our