One Art

Who is the speaker? Define and describe the speaker and his/her voice. What does the speaker say? Who is the audience? Are other characters involved?

Blake Fletcher

AP English

November 1, 2011

One Art

            The speaker in the poem One Art seems to be a guy who is really having a hard time with their life. He has a very negative view on life. Instead of seeing the ability to win or to push through and come out on top, he only sees losing. The audience seems to be his ex girlfriend.

            The tone of this poem seems to be extremely negative. Sure, the poem states “the art of losing isn’t hard to master” that strikes me like the phrase glass half full. There are ways that you can say the same thing without sounding so negative. For example, the art of winning is difficult to master. I show this because it further proves that the tone of the speakers voice is rather negative.

            The speaker says “Even losing you (the joking voice, a gesture

I love) I shan’t have lied.” This quote suggests that he may be talking to an ex lover. So, the audience in this poem is definitely someone who was very close to our speaker. Also, this quote suggests the break up may be the audience’s fault, or the audience could be ok with it. I say this because in the parentheses which means  it is thought not said the speaker thinks “The joking voice” maybe this thought is to the reaction from the audience. Maybe after all this the audience is taking this mans pleas and sorrow as an act or a joke or a way to get the relationship back.

            In conclusion, The speaker in this poem seems to be genuinely upset about losing this loved one. So instead of thinking about how hard it is to win or succeed he sees only the failure in his life. The tone of this poem is all together negative. The way I see this poem being spoken is by some depressed lonely person who is taking pity on themselves, how do you see this poem being spoken?