The Experience of Loss in Elizabeth Bishop’s Poems

【Abstract】： Elizabeth Bishop （1911-1979）， as an American worldwide famous poet in the 20th century nowadays attracts more and more people to study her poems and herself from different perspectives. Thus， the present paper aims to explore her experience of loss in her poems from psychological perspective to present a clear picture about the relationship between her life experience and poem writing. Her poem Elizabeth Bishop： One Art will be chosen as research data.

【Key words】：experience of loss;Bishop

1.Introduction

As a famous poet， Elizabeth Bishop has written many “reflective” poems. Here the reason why “reflective” is used is to indicate that most of her poems are a kind of reflection of her personal life experience and at the same time those poems reflect her extreme longing for love. From psychological perspective， the sadness and misfortunes in one’s childhood can always give one an incurable kind experience of loss that can deeply affect a writer’s creation. As regards to Elizabeth Bishop， though as a prominent poet， she didn’t have a happy childhood and that greatly impacted her writing of poem. Therefore， it is meaningful to study her poems based on her life experience with the help of psychological rationale.

2. An Exploration of Bishop’s Poem-One Art

One Art as a love poem essentially expresses Bishop’s love for her girl friend. Bishop must have felt painful facing her girl friend’s death. Although in the poem， she did not directly mention Lota’s death and always said the art of losing is not hard to master， readers can see that she always repeatedly stated the loss event in her life and that’s a demonstration that she could not escape from the suffering of experience of loss.

The first stanza of the poem is as follows：

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.

If readers have finished reading the first stanza they may have a common impression that the speaker is telling her experience of loss to them. It seems that the speaker has lost a lot and radically realized the nature of life is variable.

The second stanza of the poem is as follows：

Lose something every day. Accept the fluster

of lost door keys， the hour badly spent.

The art of losing isn’t hard to master.

In this stanza， she took some everyday or trivial things as example to tell us life is filled with all kinds of losses at any moment. From Bishop’s perspective， the “fluster of lost door keys” and the “hour badly spent” can be called some irrevocable losses every day people have to face.

The third stanza of the poem is as follows：

Then practice losing farther， losing faster：

Places， and names， and where it was you meant to

Travel. None of these will bring disaster.

In this stanza， Bishop further told readers （actually to herself） to practice losing farther and losing faster. The tone in this stanza seems that Bishop has not lost so many things. Before losing something farther and faster， she in advance told herself to practice losing farther and faster. However， the fact is that she has lost a lot， including something farther and faster.

The fourth stanza in the poem is as follows：

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.

Conspicuously， in this stanza， Bishop mentioned an event related to her mother. She said： “I lost my mother’s watch”. Followed is the loss of three loved houses. Moving to this stanza， she eventually told her piercingly painful losses in childhood to readers， especially to herself through writing them down. It is only in the process of writing that Bishop can directly face the experience of losses in life. In a sense， losses of parents’ love and loved houses are the essential source of her psychological pains and at the same time of her impetus to write. In this stanza， she still told herself that the art of losing isn’t hard to master.

The fifth stanza of the poem is as follows：

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

Some realms I owned， two rivers， a continent.

I miss them， but it wasn’t disaster.

In this stanza， from a broader angle， she stated her losses of cities， realms， rivers and continent. Although she has written many poems but few are directly related to patriotism. Therefore， here her losses can be understood her losses of psychological cities， realms， rivers and continent. At the end of this stanza， she still said that it wasn’t a disaster. Up to here， her simulate optimistic and persevering image is till telling herself loss wasn’t a disaster. The last stanza in the poem is as follows：

-Even losing you （the joking voice， a gesture

I love） I shan’t have lied. It’s evident

the art of losing is not too hard to master

though it may look like （Write it！） like disaster.

In the last stanza， she pointed out what she really wanted to write in this poem. “Losing you” is the topic of the poem. Faced with the fact of losing you， she again told herself that losing you was not hard to master. However， at the end of the stanza， “write it” in bracket clearly reveals her pains， helplessness， despair， fear and anxiety when she faced the fact of “l(fā)osing you”. Essentially speaking， in her inner heart loss is just like a disaster but she dare not face it directly.

3.Conclusion

Combined with Bishop’s personal life experience， these theories can better explain her experience of loss in her poems. Psychologically speaking， she lived in such a world where she always feared losing something. She couldn’t get rid of her sense of loss throughout her life. Thus， she pursued safety and love within her whole life driven by her longing for love and a stable bay. Her writing career to some extent offers her a means to express her painful experience and give her courage to directly face her losses in life.

Works Cited

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[3]余華，王堯.一個人的記憶決定了他的寫作方向[J].當代作家評論，2002.（4）：19-30.