One Art

1. Bishop wrote “One Art” in the form of a villanelle, a long-established type of poetry that is traditionally light-hearted in tone and subject matter. In accordance with the ‘rules’ of a villanelle, “One Art” contains 19 lines divided into six stanzas; the first and third lines rhyme and repeat in alternating stanzas until the concluding quatrain, in which both lines appear. In a brief essay, discuss how the fixed form of the villanelle serves to amplify the themes or concerns of Bishop’s poem. Using examples from the poem, point out the ways in which it fails to uphold the rules of the villanelle, and explain why this loss of control of the form is significant. Also discuss Bishop's possible reasons for choosing to address the subject of loss in a form of poetry usually associated with frivolity and trivial wordplay.

2. Explain the title of the poem. Begin by considering the definition of the word “art,” and how it relates to other terms like “artifice” and “artfulness.” What is the “one art” to which the speaker of the poem explicitly refers? Although the title seems to single out one art, to what other form(s) of art does the poem, as a whole, indirectly allude? How can these different “arts” be understood as “one art”? Support your ideas and arguments with textual evidence.