1. In the first stanza, what does the speaker suggest makes the loss of some things especially easy to accept?
(a) They are part of a distant past.
(b) They seem to want to get lost.
(c) They are small and insignificant.
(d) They are difficult to live with.

2. What technique is employed in line 16, "Even losing you"?
(a) Sarcasm.
(b) Dramatic irony.
(c) Apostrophe.
(d) Understatement.

3. What "Art" does the title refer to?
(a) The art of maintaining perspective.
(b) The art of mastering loss.
(c) The art of disciplining the emotions.
(d) The art of maintaining relationships.

4. Who is the author of "One Art"?
(a) Lucille Clifton.
(b) Elizabeth Bishop.
(c) Sylvia Plath.
(d) Audre Lourde.

5. What does the colon at the end of line 7, "Then practice losing farther, losing faster," indicate about the "places, and names" in line 8?
(a) Places and names are more upsetting to lose than small objects and small amounts of time.
(b) Places and names are some of the last things that a person loses.
(c) Places and names are examples of things that can be lost "farther" and "faster."
(d) Places and names are examples of things a person can only lose through "practice" and experience.

Short Answer Questions

1. What is a reasonable statement to make about the effect of the enjambment in lines 8 and 9, "places, and names, and where it was you meant/ to travel"?

2. What is used for the first time in the poem's final stanza?

3. Lines 4 and 6, ending in the words "fluster" and "master," exhibit what type of rhyme?

4. How many stanzas does "One Art" have?

5. Stanzas four through six have which techniques in common?

(see the answer key)

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