“One Art” has an ironic tone that reveals levels of melancholy and fragility beneath the speaker’s words. On the surface, the speaker seems resolute in their belief that “the art of losing isn’t hard to master,” which is a sentiment they repeat several times throughout the poem. Yet the fact they feel the need to repeat this sentiment so many times implies that they may not believe their own words. Furthermore, the speaker’s use of negation is noteworthy. They never say it’s easy to master loss—only that it isn’t hard. The speaker also uses negation in the poem’s second refrain, where they insist that “loss is no disaster” (line 3). Despite specifically saying that loss isn’t a disaster, the word “disaster” is strong enough to overpower the negation—especially when repeated as frequently as the speaker does. By the poem’s end, the speaker reluctantly admits as much when they say, “the art of losing . . . may look like . . . disaster” (lines 18–19). With this moment of recognition, the speaker begins to confront the sense of loss and grief they in fact haven’t managed to master.