One Art Analysis Essay

One Art by Elizabeth Bishop is a poem that explores loss in comparison to an art; however, this art is not one to be envied or sought after to succeed at. Everyone has experienced loss as the art of losing is presented as inevitably simple to master. The speaker’s attitude toward loss becomes gradually more serious as the poem progresses.

This paper is a formal analysis of the Marble grave stele with a family group relief sculpture. It is a pentelic marble style relief standing at 171.1cm tall carved by a master. It is from the Late Classical period of Greek, Attic which was completed around ca.360 B.C. . I chose to analyze this piece as apposed to the others because I’m mainly attracted to art and sculptures from the Greek era. The overall color used in this relief is ivory with a few cracks and pieces broken off. There is some discoloration which causes the color to come off as slightly light brown for most of the relief. The sculpture appears larger compared to the other sculptures in the art room. It represents a family which includes a man, his wife, and their

“Forget not, never forget that you have promised me to use this silver to become an honest man” (33). Even though Valjean does not recall this promise, he seals it by taking not only the silver but the two candlesticks as well. After Valjean gets wealthier, he sells all his possessions of value except for the two candlesticks that the bishop has given him. “It was a room very well fitted with mahogany furniture, ugly as all furniture of that kind is, and the walls covered with shilling paper. They could see nothing but two candlesticks of antique form that stood on the mantle, and appeared to be silver” (54). The constant presence of the candlesticks reminds Valjean of the bishop and what he has done for him. “He felt the bishop was there, that the bishop was present all the more that he was dead…” (75). The candlesticks are meaningful and important to Valjean, which makes these objects symbolic. The candlesticks have an even deeper meaning than anything else, because the bishop gives them to Valjean as a symbol for change and the promise he makes but never recalls.

The Starry Night by Vincent Van Gogh is consistent of his typical artwork. He uses the lines free and loose making it an expression of his contour lines. The spacing between the stars and the curving contours making it a dot to dot effect. Van Gogh’s, The Starry Night” portrays his personal emotion. He writes to his brother about his painting almost as if he would be confused himself about the painting. The village is dark but at the same time it is peaceful compared to the dramatic sky life. In Sol Le Witts, Wall Drawing it uses an ordered form and symmetrical form called classical lines. The line Sol Le Witts uses is considered a connection between two separate points. Although

As the poem goes on it gets deeper with meaning, sadder even. Lines four and five are the most crucial lines of the poem. Line three ends with the head giving the heart advice. “You will lose the ones you love. They will all go,” this isn’t the first thing someone wants to hear, especially not someone who is aware that they have just lost someone they love. But this is classic, logical advice that your emotions need to hear. What it means is that one day everyone you love will be gone, it is the sad truth of the world we live in. Nothing is forever. “But even the earth will go,

Consider this in relation to growing up. Part of growing up is learning how to handle certain situations, specifically emergency situations. However, many people assume that those types of situations rarely happen, especially to themselves. For instance, a five-year old boy does not want to learn how to swim because he says he will stay on dry land his entire life. As the years go by, he forgets about not wanting to swim. One day he is drafted into the navy, his ship is attacked and sinks, and the next thing he knows, he drown because of the fact that he refused to learn how to swim. This example shows he has ended up like those "who have forgotten how to swim", in other words he died like those who died from drowning. The man who drowned would not have suffered his fate if he had paid attention to the swimming lessons his parents made him take. By listening to the poet's warning of being in distress, the reader has the ability to prevent by remembering past lessons like this from

Her views that losing things will not ruin you becomes forced.Language contributes a deeper understanding of the poem as well. Bishops words have been carefully chosen to emphasis the initial optimism she feels, and ultimately her real opinions on the subject. In lines 1-6 she deliberately chooses things that would be trivial to lose such as keys and then progresses on to things that would be much more influential and intimidating to lose such as heirlooms and moving to a new city. She does not express it as having the ability to cripple her. From lines 13-15, she describes what many of us would find devastating, moving far away from home. Yet she is still not considering it a disaster. Using these examples of things that people would find upsetting strengthens the contrast that appears in the last stanza when something that is all too familiar to us and is universally hurtful is described. She is struggling over her own hurt and must force herself to write that it is not hurtful to her in either to reassure her. An extended metaphor is used to describe losing things as being like an art form or a skill that is

Bishop writes “One Art” as if giving advice to another, but as the poem goes on, details get more personal and it becomes somewhat therapeutic to her. She starts with more casual objects that most people loose often. She challenges those who wish to master the art of losing to “accept the fluster of lost door keys, the

Prior to this class, I have never heard Elizabeth Bishop’s name before or read any of her poetry. When I read her well noted poem, ‘One Art’ and discovered her name, I researched her life to seek what this poem might have meant to her at the time it was written. After discovering the hardships and tragic losses she has experienced in her life, the poem suddenly seems to make more sense.

These lines show that even the king, with all that he built, reign came to an end and nothing is left of him. The lines also show that the kingdom that once was powerful is now nothing at all. Despite building large

The Mona Lisa, 1503 - 1506, painted on poplar wood (77 x 53cm) with oil paint.

Throughout history art has served as a preservation and representation of the time in which they were made. During the Ancient Greek period art was not only mare naturalistic and humanistic but also became directly affected by the events going around. Both the Marble Statue of an Old Woman and the Marble Statue of Aphrodite are sculptures that were made during the Ancient Greek era, they each tell a story of what was going on during that point in time.

In the poem the author is telling the reader about his kiss with helen and how much he loves her. He loves Helen more than anything else in his life, but all she gave him was one kiss. He loves her even if she doesn't give him the same love. In the poem the author states “for heaven is in those lips”. In the poem the author is kissing Helen and describing the kiss to the reader. He referred to her lips as heaven; heaven is referred as a paradise in the sky where religious people are sent after they die. The author is saying kissing Helen is his paradise. Helen had thousands of men go to war for her. This means that he isn't receiving all the love that he is giving her. There are thousands of men just like him ready to die for Helen. In the poem the author states “And all is dross that is not Helena. The author is thinking about Helen and how she compares to other people in her life. He thinks that everyone and everything is unimportant unless it Helen. This shows how much Helen means to him. He is willing to put Helen over everything in his

Yet, with each of its three subsequent appearances, the word weighs heavier on the formal arrangement of the villanelle, and depresses its tone. “Disaster” is a loaded word—undisciplined, forceful, and moving—and its repeated appearance at the ends of the third and fifth stanzas underscores its gravity. Thus, although only used by the speaker to highlight its antithesis, “disaster” speaks for itself, deliberately and consistently contradicting the element of control denoted by its rhyming counterpart, “master.” The momentum of “One Art” derives from the mounting conflict between human faculty and that which exceeds it—between the words “master” and “disaster.” In its body, the poem spends most of its words on mastery. Directly, in the second and third stanzas, and through submission of personal example in the fourth and fifth, the speaker advocates that one must appoint loss a virtuous habit, and treat it as a practiced art. In these middle stanzas, “disaster” requires no such support. As the poem’s momentum builds, the speaker’s losses become more profound, and their effects more taxing. While its words rally behind “master,” the villanelle’s underlying sentiments sponsor “disaster.”

Besides discussing fate, the deaths of the wanderer’s family and friends also show the transience of life. An example of this is seen through lines 34 to 36 when the wanderer reminisces about the fun he had in his youth with everyone he knew. At the end of the sentence, he says that “that joy has all faded.”, meaning that those times with his friends do not last forever.