Self-Deception in “One Art” by Elizabeth Bishop

Losing objects, memories and people is very natural. All people can identify and relate to that. I lose things all the time. I lose keys as the speaker of the poems says. I lose places. I’ve lost friends. I’ve lost family. 

This is the first thing that attracted my attention, because it made me think of how people treat objects and people, they have them and when they loose them think it’s the end of the world. We usually forget to stop and think that people some times are just passengers, they come teach us something and then they leave. 

The idea of things “filled with the intent to be lost” blew my mind on account of the importance of losing. Because losing teaches you to appreciate.

At first glance the speaker seemingly attempts to persuade us that loosing “is no disaster”, however the entire poem is built on self-deception. The speaker is lying to themselves. 

The deception becomes clearer at the final stanza. Things become more personal. The speaker addresses someone that they’ve lost and we know that they care, that loosing that person is in fact a disaster.The last stanza gives away the extent of the importance of loss because it unveils the lies found in the stanzas preceding it. 

The speaker casually takes away the importance of objects in the first stanzas, hence if one loses something of no importance then, indeed, it wouldn’t be a disaster. If you lose something insignificant you can deal with the loss easily. 

Again, even with the idea of self-deception present, this poem is about all of us. We all can identify in  multiple ways with it. This is what makes this poem really great.