In the lyric essay Joyas Volardores by Brian Doyle, the word “heart” is used more than 20 times. Throughout the passage, heart is used repeatedly both as a metaphor for life and as a literal muscular organ. Doyle uses the word “heart” for the word “life” as a way to show that it is something everyone has and is affected by experience. It is important to Doyle that the reader understands that their life is affected by experience because he wants them to make the most out of their life, in other words be vulnerable and be open to new ideas. Being open and being vulnerable means one won’t have barricades on their life. 

Doyle begins this essay by expressing how small a hummingbird’s heart is. Doyle discusses that a hummingbird’s heart is the size of a pencil eraser but also that “a hummingbird’s heart is a lot of the hummingbird” (Doyle 94). He uses this quote to stress size. He goes on to say that all animals can spend their heartbeats “slowly, like a tortoise and live to be two hundred years old, or you can spend them fast, like a hummingbird, and live to be two years old” (Doyle 95). This quote discusses that the more quickly one lives, the more quickly one will die. Doyle also talks about how “thin and lean” the hummingbirds heart fibers are. Hummingbirds suffer more heart attacks than any other living creature, this is because they’re burning out their heart by all the activities they’re doing. Another literal use of the word “heart” is when Doyle says “every creature on earth has approximately two billion heartbeats to spend in a lifetime” (95). Doyle points this out because he wants to make it known that most creatures have the same amount of heart beats, just not necessarily the same life expectancy. 

Doyle uses heart in a metaphorical sense throughout this passage too, when he says that there is “so much held in a heart in a day, an hour, a moment” (96). This is used as a metaphor because Doyle is really saying that there is so much one can do in a day, an hour, or a moment. In this quote, Doyle is saying that one should make the most out of the heartbeats they are given in a day. Like the hummingbird, Doyle wants everyone to use their heartbeats or their lives to make them as full as they can. Doyle really stresses this because that is the whole point of his passage, to encourage others to truly experience their lives. Another way to look at the same quote “a hummingbird’s heart is a lot of the hummingbird” (Doyle 94) that was used in the paragraph before is by seeing it as a metaphorical sense of size. Size is important here because it shows that no matter how big or small a heart is, what you do with it is what is truly important. The same can be said for your life. This directly relates to the heart/life discussion because one could interpret this as saying regardless of how your life is going, what you end up making out of it is what is truly important. The more vulnerable you allow your big or small heart to be, the more you will be able to experience throughout your years of life.

The discussion of chambers in hearts is used heavily on page 96 of Joyas Volardores but Doyle starts off with saying “the biggest heart in the world is inside the blue whale…it’s as big as a room. It is a room, with four chambers” (95). The talk of chambers is used as a synonym for different memories or experiences within your life. The blue whale has four chambers and within each chamber there may be different good or bad memories from its life that come with it. These rooms or experiences can contain different struggles a person has been through and may be reliving as they look back on their life. Doyle goes into the depth of telling the reader that mammals and birds have four chambers in their hearts, reptiles and turtles have three, fish have two chambers, and insects, mollusks, and worms have one chamber (96). Doyle then goes on to say that there is “so much held in a heart in a lifetime” (96). This quote goes back to the idea that all these experiences or chambers in one’s “heart” are what help shape one’s life. These chambers are hidden within the walls of one’s heart, which directly relates to people trying to hide their memories as well. If something has hurt someone in the past, they will try to bury the memory or experience and that is what these chambers help to represent; a hidden part of life that contains closed off struggles and damaged memories. These memories don’t necessarily have to be damaged but Doyle discusses that birds have four chambers which could be chambers full of poor memories. Birds live their lives vulnerably and ambitiously which makes these birds more apt to being hurt and due to their number of chambers they probably have more memories coinciding with these experiences. 

Even though the word “heart” was used more than 20 times in the lyric essay Joyas Volardores, it was used in several different ways. First, it was used in a literal sense discussing the different jobs of the heart in the hummingbird. Then, it was used in a metaphorical sense talking about how one’s vulnerability and openness creates a life with more experiences. Doyle wants to make a difference through his writing by persuading people to try to live their lives ambitiously like the hummingbird does. The hummingbird is such a good example of pushing through and using every heartbeat to its full ability. Doyle doesn’t want the reader to live their life like the tortoise, even if that does mean one could live to be older. Lastly, Doyle uses the chambers as another way to bring the heart and life metaphor into action. His use of the word “chamber” helps to bring about memories and experiences into his passage. Doyle uses the word “heart” differently multiple times, but each time uses it as a way to say that one should live their lives without barricades and more openly through their experiences.  

 
