Elizabeth Bishop's "One Art": From Conception

 I'll be looking at drafts of "One Art" by Elizabeth Bishop. Due to time constraints, I'll do it over a few posts. Beth on Bluedragonfly10 has interesting comments on the matter and shows several drafts. 

HOW TO LOSE THINGS/?/THE GIFT OF LOSING THINGS

One might begin by losing one’s reading glasses
oh 2 or 3 times a day–or one’s favorite pen.

I don't consider this a draft. It's a scrap scribbled on a cocktail napkin or grocery store receipt while waiting at the doctor's office. It's a poet's notebook that may prove fruitful with the right tool. It's a concept--no more.

But it's interesting what she does with the concept. She writes a few rather banal losses, but common ones, ones readers might identify with. She is trying to make a quick catalog of ideas of where to go and perhaps came up short. 

The most fascinating aspects are her titles. The first suggests that we need help with her expert guidance. The second suggests it requires a kind of talent to lose things. 

What inspired this idea? This could have been initiated in at least three different ways.

1. She recognizes she loses objects. Then she tries to find a unique way of looking at this (titles), turning this common occurrence to have a curious spin, tries to show us the common inside a new, unusual frame.
2. She begins with a humorous observation with an unusual frame and starts to list common misplaced things.  
3. She has a loss in mind already, a human one, and tries to reframe that experience, coming up with a list of commonly lost objects. 

The human element appears in the first full draft, so it's possible she knew what she wanted to address and was only sketching out supporting details. Or conversely, the human element suggested itself after sketching out the concept. 

However, it occurred we have 1) something common, 2) made strange, and 3) the human or emotional element to be added soon.

This discussion continues about the first draft.