Why does this poem include repitition, but then breaks rep. apart? What does each stanza say? One Art By Eli..

Question

....Elizabeth Bishop

What is the tone of the persona. Why?

The order of items lost "write it"?

What would be a good THESIS?

Repition ever happen causing change?

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.

-- Elizabeth Bishop

Answer 1

Looks like this is someones English homework but I love analysing poetry so I'll give it a shot anyway!

I take it your first question refers to the line "The art of losing isn't hard to master" and the fact that it is echoed in the last stanza "the art of losing's not too hard to master."  Here, the meaning has changed.  The speaker is no longer saying that losing something (or someone) is not hard.  She admits that losing the person is difficult, and in my oppinion is saying that losing a person is the hardest thing of all, but even this is "not too hard to master".  In other words she will get over the loss.  This is just my opinion, and the joy of peotry is that it's always open to interpretation (even if that interpretaion is the wrong one :) !)

Answer 2

The poem is a villanelle.  The form is defined by a pattern of repetitions, and some poets introduce variations in the repeated lines.

http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMI...