Two Arts. Revision and what it leaves behind

Abstract

Inspired by an experience of teaching the drafts of Elizabeth Bishop’s ‘One Art’, this article rereads the drafts as far more than imperfect precursors to the final poem. The drafts have their own prosodic features and poetic logic, one that values and enacts a vertiginous dilation of thought, expression and memory. The final version of ‘One Art’ records an anxiety about moving away from the openness of drafting to the stability of the finished poem. It is an anxiety that writers and especially writing teachers should consider adopting.