Literary Criticism (Formalist Criticism)

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.

This poem by Elizabeth Bishop is an example of a literary piece under the Formalist Criticism. Formalist critics read literature as an independent piece of work or art object and so do not place any kind of importance on the author or the time it was written in. Anything outside of the work is ignored (not examined or given attention to). Thus, in analyzing this piece, one should not include the author's background and other factors which were not part of the text. It is believed in this literary approach that the focus should be more on the content of the text itself.

At short notice, one could say that there is a pattern when it comes to the rhyming of the end words. Since there are three lines for every stanza with an a-b-a rhyming, one could immediately thought that there's a rhyming. However, the last stanza highlighted the confusion since it differs among all with regard to rhyming and even the lines. Thus, I would say it is in a free verse. In addition, there was no pattern with regard to the syllables. 

The poem used the first person point of view. It is easy to notice that the poem is narrating. However, it contains different stories presented through different situations which tackles one topic---the art of losing. At first, just by reading the title, one might thought that the poem will cover about something happy but as the first stanza entered, one should realize that the whole will tackle "bitterness". Also, this poem used hyperbolic figure of speech in the following lines just to pretend that there is really nothing wrong with losing something.

I lost two cities, lovely ones. And, vaster,

some realms I owned, two rivers, a continent...

Although the writer tries to point out again and again the art of losing as something that could be easily mastered, it is not difficult to realize that she might be stating this ironically like that of a person who says something opposite of what he/she really thinks and feels. The last stanza is an evident example of this where she even include ...though it may look like (Write it!) like disaster.