
In “Joyas Volardoras,” Brian Doyle uses his poem to outline what it means to live a life of fulfillment. He expresses that everyone has their own journey and captures the reality of the human heart along with pain and love. Doyle describes the human experience by looking at the lives and characteristics of hummingbirds and blue whales. He dives into the hard lessons of life, while looking at some of the worlds most adored and mystifying animals. Throughout the text he touches on the fragility, ability and shapely distinctions of each animal. He also expresses to the reader that each life is cyclical in that everyone has a life to live, whether one takes advantage of it, one can choose to live a hundred long happy years or a fast two years metaphorically mimicking the lifestyle of a hummingbird. He draws on the personal experience of his son having been born missing a chamber in his heart and how each magnificent cardiologist worked to save his sons life. In Doyle’s prose poem, tone, fragmented sentences, similes, and anaphora is utilized to depict the mesmerizing outlook on the hearts of hummingbirds, whales and humans alike to depict how precious life can be.

   Firstly, the flow of the paper right from the start is upbeat, the tone is fast paced, with few gaps, commas and breaths in between to accentuate the impotence of the hummingbirds. The first few paragraphs of the text read as if one were trying to keep the pace of a hummingbird’s heart which he mentioned was ten beats for every second (Doyle 94). This adds a dimension of intrigue to the writing and further advocates for the wild life of the animal itself. Subsequently, as Doyle talks of a hummingbirds’ nature to slow down so does the style of text, dramatizing the focus on its heart. It reads, “But when they rest they come close to death: on frigid nights…they retreat in torpor…and if they are not soon warmed…their hearts grow cold, and they cease to be” (Doyle 95). The abrupt change of pace from quick to subdued makes the reader take an extra second to think and process the text being portrayed. This is crucial for the attention span of the reader; tone is used for the duration of the paper to look at the heart of the hummingbird.

Another device that Doyle takes advantage of is anaphora with the use of the word heart, portraying hummingbirds, whales and humans. The repetition of the heart puts an emphasis on the addressee and the focus of the paper, it is immensely effective in grabbing the reader’s attention and gets them to seek out the focal point of the message if nothing else. He spews, “A hummingbird’s heat beats ten times a second. A hummingbird’s heart is the size of a pencil eraser. A hummingbird’s heart is a lot of the hummingbird” (Doyle 94). He exposes that the vulnerability of the heart is heightened by events experienced in someone’s life because all bodies are unified by this one organ. This type of authoritative writing jumps at the reader, takes the depth of the read to new dimensions. He’s adding that how we choose to live affects how long one might stay on this Earth while listing off amiable facts about hummingbirds. Anaphora is another way that Doyle touches on the heart of the subjects.

Thirdly, the author uses informal writing to stress the grandness of the mammal at hand, the blue whale. In the introduction of the whale into the text, facts are thrown left and right of how their heart weighs more than seven tons, and how they are one hundred feet long (Doyle 95). This is essential to create such vivid imagery in order to get the reader thinking to the scale of how big this creature actually is. He uniquely articulates his speech in a way that before one even knows where he is going with it that one’s mind is thinking abstractly. It states, “It is waaaaay bigger than your car. It drinks a hundred gallons of milk from its mama every day and gains two hundred pounds a day…” (Doyle 95). The informality of writing highlights how large scale this creature is and how he tries to paint a picture. His awkward way of writing in this creature directly reflects the content of the paper and how malleable he is with description.

Furthermore, Doyle uses the simple literary device of a simile to spell out the complex understanding of the purpose of life fulfillment. A simile is used for each of the animals and then some throughout the piece. The text reads, “Every creature on Earth has approximately two billion heartbeats to spend in a lifetime. You can spend them 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 exemplifies his admiration of a beating heart and what it means to live one’s life opposed to just being alive which reflects well on him making the reader further emotionally attached to the piece. Doyle uses literary devices seamlessly throughout his text and it makes the storyline, which may come off as lackadaisical, transduce into a traditional poetic read. Similes most times are overlooked and conceived as elementary but with the combination of fast pace tone, fragmented words and lists upon lists, his similes only add to the sincerity of the story.

In summation, the text is very diligent in depicting how cyclical the similarities of the heart are to a human, hummingbird, and whale through the authors nontraditional form of writing. At some points in the reading, the content almost becomes trivial and overtaken by the intricate use of imagery, similes, and tone. Within humans, hummingbirds and blue whales, we are all meant to experience life deeply. “Joyas Valadoras” translates to flying jewels, the imagery of this alone may make one feel as if they are flying, something only a quirky prose poem could trigger. And whether reading this makes one feel alive to the thought of life as a hummingbird living for two short, adventure filled, thrilling packed years, being a whale that weighs more than seven tons, or even so, a human being, is what Doyle wants from his readers. With their polar opposite physical traits and characteristics seeming to share a common ancestry, all three creatures descend from common roots and center around the fragility of a heart. Doyle so eloquently links these all together with the artistry of writing, literary devices and a chamber filled, red beating heart. 
