After reading a NY Times essay on the benefits of memorizing poetry, I decided to try it for myself, starting with Elizabeth Bishop’s “One Art,” which has been a favorite of mine since college and which I just happened to be teaching that week. My experience corroborates the essayist’s—it was much easier to memorize the poem than I had anticipated. I think I chose a particularly appropriate poem to begin with, since the prominent rhyme, rhythm, and repetitive structure of “One Art” facilitate memorization. And once I felt fairly secure about the lines, sing-songy declamation did indeed transform into a performance that allowed me to appreciate nuances that I had never noticed before, despite having read that poem, often aloud, but always guided by the printed lines, probably 100 times in 10 years or so. So, yes, I am now in favor of memorizing poetry, and—for my next trick—I’m thinking Emily Dickinson.
All of this to say that during the memorization process, I recited the poem to Daniel several times so he could check my accuracy. I figured he had probably learned the poem accidentally by hearing me and reading it, so I asked him to try reciting it. He didn’t quite have Bishop’s poem memorized, but he came up with a poem that I enjoyed almost as much.
Here’s Bishop’s “One Art”:
The art of losing isn’t hard to master;
so many things seem filled with the intent
to be lost that their lost 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 gesture
I love) I shan’t have lied. It’s evident
the art of losing’s not too hard to master
though it may look like (Write it!) like disaster.
And here’s Daniel’s version:
The art of losing isn’t hard to master.
I lost some scissors once.
That was not a disaster.
I lost some houses; the first of three.
The art of losing is a plaster-caster.
I lost a realm, continents.
The art of losing is a broken toaster.
Even losing you, your joking voice, a gentle gesture:
the art of losing (write it) is a tisket-a tasker.




