Textuality » 3LSCA Interacting

GSerena - One Art analysis
by GSerena - (2020-10-13)
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As a first step we start with the analysis of the title.
The words "One Art" lead the intelligent reader to wonder what art the poem might be about.
They are also both written with the initial letter, to give them a particular relevance.

Now let's analyze the layout of the poem.
It has a regular pattern: it is made up of six stanzas, the first five of three lines each, the last of four lines. We therefore find five triplets and a quatrain.
We also note that this type of poem is a "villanelle", a poetic form deriving from rustic songs.

The intelligent reader also realizes that there is a sort of refrain that is repeated four times, it consists of the phrase "The art of loosing isn't hard to master", with a small incremental repetition in the sixth verse (too). Even the term "disaster", repeated several times, can be considered a counter-refrain.

The "I" voice talks to a "you" expressing sadness and sense of loss, while making ironical comments on the inevitability of losing objects and opportunities. It is part of life. Losing a loved one, however, is a much more painful experience.

The words used are all in everyday use and the register adopted is informal, as underlined by the contracted forms "isn't, wasn't".

Verbs are in the present tense and are almost all in the affirmative form.
There is only one passive form in full form: "to be lost", and a couple of implied forms: "lost door keys" "an hour badly spent".
There are imperative verbs like "losing something", "look!", "Write it!"

The rhyme scheme is ABA, and ABAA in the last verse. This is because the narrator wants to focus the attention of the intelligent reader on the message contained in the latter, signaled precisely through the diversity of length.

In poetry there are metaphors, enjambments, assonances, alliterations and consonances.
The metaphor is present in the title, where the intelligent reader understands that losing objects, people or cities is compared to an art.
The figure of the speech of the enjambment is found in verses 2-3, 4-5, 8-9, 11-12, 16-17, and is created by verses whose syntax and meaning go in the following verse.
Assonances are present in verses 1 and 8 and are created by the repetition of the vowel a at the beginning of the words.
Alliteration and consonance are present in the second and third verse, where the same sound produced by the initial of the word and the same consonant sound within it is repeated.

Marked punctuation, such as exclamation marks, hyphens, brackets, or other signals implying emphasis or a change of addressee.