I just love this poem. I first heard this in the movie, "In Her Shoes" and then encountered it agian during summer in Lit 14 class with Ms. Nunez and again last night when I watched the movie again.
One Art
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.
The first time I heard this, I cried. The time when we recited it for Lit, I got teary eyed. I don't know what's with this poem that it just makes me sad.
Maybe I feel for the persona. She's in denial. And she's pretending that losing someone is okay and it isn't that hard that losing her friend is just the same as losing a pen, or something ordinary. She's pretending she's okay and that she's used to losing things.
That's why the poem is sad. Because it's sadder to read or see someone pretending s/he is okay, when in reality his/her world is crumbling.