Brainstrummings from a Bug-Eyed Bookworm

Tiff is a PhD student in English literature at UC-Berkeley. She takes no prisoners, bars no holds, holds no bars.

Friday, January 06, 2006

A Great Poem Revisited via Chick Flick

I'd completely forgotten about this really heartbreakingly beautiful poem (to be precise, a villanelle!) by Elizabeth Bishop until I was reminded of its existence via the recent chick flick, "In her Shoes" (based on the chick-lit novel of the same name.)

One Art (by Elizabeth Bishop)

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.

Lose something every day. Accept the fluster
of lost door keys, the hour badly spent.
The art of losing isn't hard to master.

Then practice losing farther, losing faster:
places, and names, and where it was you meant
to travel. None of these will bring disaster.

I lost my mother's watch. And look! my last, or
next-to-last, of three loved houses went.
The art of losing isn't hard to master.

I lost two cities, lovely ones. And, vaster,
some realms I owned, two rivers, a continent.
I miss them, but it wasn't a disaster.

--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.

1 Comments:

At 9:30 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

I also love Bishop's "Sestina" and "Insomnia." Dang, I should read poetry more often...

 

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