Ginnie's review

Ginnie's review

Geography III: Poems Geography III: Poems
by Elizabeth Bishop

354189 Ginnie's review
rating: 5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars
bookshelves: poetry

I do not have the skill to explain why I think a poet is so fine but because I want others to love what I love, I have taken to simply pasting in examples (thank you, Paul, for teaching this lesson.) This thin book contains some of Bishop's very best.

One Art

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.

Lose something every day. Accept the fluster
of lost door keys, the hour badly spent.
The art of losing isn't hard to master.

Then practice losing farther, losing faster:
places, and names, and where it was you meant
to travel. None of these will bring disaster.

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.

I lost two cities, lovely ones. And, vaster,
some realms I owned, two rivers, a continent.
I miss them, but it wasn't a disaster.


--Even losing you (the joking voice, a ges...more

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comments (showing 1-7 of 7)

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message 1: by Ruth
02/08/2008 02:36PM

335159 Gad, I love that poem, Ginnie. If a person only read one EB poem, it should be that one.

R

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message 2: by Koeeoaddi
02/08/2008 02:50PM

321764 I love it too, Ruth, and after everyone reads that one, they should go read The Fish. Really, where else (that you can stand) can everything be rainbow, rainbow, rainbow?

http://www.poemhunter.com/poem...

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message 3: by Ruth
02/08/2008 03:46PM

335159 Yes! The Fish! How could I forget it?

R

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message 4: by Monica
02/10/2008 07:28AM

347123 Thank you guys, very nice for a windy day 8 degrees outside...good thing I like to hibernate:)

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message 5: by Ruth
02/10/2008 07:32AM

335159 8 degrees!! I've never even been in 8 degrees in my life. Quelle horreur!

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message 6: by Philip
02/10/2008 08:21AM

555726 hmm, since it's ten below zero here I guess I won't even comment ...

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message 7: by Ruth
02/10/2008 08:26AM

335159 Shudder.

60 here at 8:30 am, headed for mid 70s.

R



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