Throughout the short 1980 poem “One Art,” writer Elizabeth Bishop approaches the topic of loss with a whimsical, almost satirical mood. She speaks of lost car keys in stanza two, then we see a rapid decline in the “funniness” of the lost items. In stanza three Bishop speaks of losing names, homes, and dreams, all things that people consider dear and try hard to hold onto. In stanza four Bishop talks of losing a precious heirloom, and property that she owned. This stanza suggests that the speaker is in some sort of financial down spiral, but is still speaking with the same light intonation. Stanza six goes yet a step further, and the speaker writes that she has lost whole countries, whole realms that once belonged to her, most likely in a metaphorical