Over the course of nineteen lines, a speaker attempts to make the case that loss is an art; that, like any other art, it can be mastered with enough practice; and that it is in fact not even a particularly difficult art form to master. Moreover, the speaker claims, while losses may be annoying, no loss rises to the level of a disaster.
These claims are laid out in the first stanza, and then the rest of the poem, which follows and then repeats these claims, uses examples to prove that loss is not "hard to master." These examples start with small objects or concepts, such as a key or the memory of a name. They grow more dramatic, broadening to include houses or cities. As the poem continues, the speaker switches from speaking about lost objects in a general mode and begins to explicitly enumerate losses they have experienced. Near the poem's end, the speaker reveals the greatest loss they have endured: that of an individual to whom the poem is addressed. Though the nature of the loss is not clear, it is implied that the speaker is grieving the death of a lover or another person with whom they shared a close relationship. However, up until the very end of the poem, the speaker insists that loss is easily dealt with and should not cause distress.
Despite this explicit argument, however, the poem reveals that the speaker may be facing a great deal of difficulty coping with loss, and may even be trying to unsuccessfully to convince themself that loss is not "a disaster." Several factors give rise to this impression. First among these factors is the speaker's exaggerated insistence that the loss of a loved one can be dealt with almost as easily as much more minor losses. The juxtaposition and jarring transition between major and minor forms of loss subtly emphasizes the absurdity of equating these various types of losses, making the reader suspect that the speaker is unreliable. Moreover, the speaker's increasingly desperate and exhausted tone indicates that they find the ideas in the poem difficult and counterintuitive to convey. Thus, while the speaker continues to insist that loss is not catastrophic, readers are likely to sense that the speaker is using denial to avoid the reality of loss.
"One Art" is a villanelle, and with some alterations, is structured according to the traditional villanelle form. Thus it contains five tercets and one quatrain, with two repeating refrains alternating throughout the poem. It also uses an ABA rhyme scheme, with an ABAA scheme in the final quatrain. It is written in iambic pentameter. These attributes contribute both to the poem's musical, rhythmic qualities and to its increasingly desperate, repetitive tone.
