Writers tend to leave clues in their text, sometimes obvious, and other times hidden. In the prose poem, “Joyas Volardores”, written by Brain Doyle, the reader can find many different literary devices used throughout. These devices are used throughout the poem to draw the attention of the reader. This is the authors way of leading the reader to text that can be broken down further, or needs to be read deeper into to find the full truth. By looking at emphasis, emotion, and logical appeal, the reader can see themselves becoming immersed in the text. This is important because it allows the reader to think deeper into the meaning of the word or phrase, that otherwise would have been skimmed over. 

Emphasis is one of the more obvious literary device used in this writing. Brian Doyle chose to use reduplicating of a single letter as his form of emphasis. The reader sees this in the word “waaaaay” on page 95, obviously drawing their attention. Why was so much emphasis placed on the single word ‘way’? In reading the sentence, it was way bigger than your car, verses, “It is waaaaay bigger than your car”, it is blatantly obvious which sentence a reader would stop and pay attention to (Doyle 95). In stopping to process what the text is saying, the reader discovers just how amazing the fact being stated is. A whale’s heart is larger than a car. This is unbelievably shocking and almost hard to even imagine. Without the emphasis added to “waaaaay” the reader would have continued reading never realizing the magnitude of the sentence they read. The deeper the reader digs into the sentence the more emotionally connected they allow themselves to be to the work.

Pathos is a literary device used throughout the text to evoke emotion. In reading “Joyas Valerdores” the reader will find multiple sentences leaving them in desolation. “consider for a moment those hummingbirds who did not open their eyes again today” (Doyle 95). This quote is right on the mark when it comes to leaving the reader feeling of grief and sadness. Is the text really talking specifically about hummingbirds? Looking at this quote, anything can replace the word hummingbirds. Consider for a moment those people who did not open their eyes today. This version is hits home more when it comes to tapping into the reader’s feelings. Playing with the reader’s emotions allows the reader to turn this sentence into something personal, or more realistic.  Another sentence that used pathos is “No living being is without interior liquid motion. We all churn inside” (Doyle 96). Doyle starts this paragraph by talking about different animals and their heart structures, but brings it back to “We”, humans. The reader realizes how similar we are to all of earths other creatures. Every being contains that one thing inside them that keeps them going. This poem is not about whales and hummingbirds; it is about how humans choose to live their lives, whether it is fast or slow. 

Logical appeal is a literary device that makes the reader see ordinary things in extraordinary ways. Logos is used in “Joyas Volardores” by putting two rational ideas together in one sentence. “the animals with the largest hearts in the world generally travel in pairs” (Doyle 96). This quote makes so much sense. A typical reader associates a heart with love. Love is an intense feeling or deep connection had for something or someone. The bigger the heart, the more love the being has to give. If the animal has so much love to give, then he or she is going to want to be with another animal to express his or her love. In using common knowledge, the reader can network what they know about love to realize how this quote makes perfect sense. By taking this quote and reading it backwards and then using logic, the reader can come to the conclusion that, humans spend most of their lives with another human by their side. Does this mean humans have big hearts? Is this the connection the author was hoping his reader would make? 

By focusing on three literary devices, emphasis, pathos, and logos the reader can almost feel the text forming its own meaning in their head. Brain Doyle used literary devices to make apparent his true meaning hidden behind the text. Most of the sentences and words he tried to make stand out could be rearranged into having to do with human life. Emphasis appeared in the text to make the reader focus in on one specific sentence, pathos was used to help the reader connect emotionally with the poem, and logos was used to help the reader connect two logical things together. Brain Doyle used literary devices in ways that would subtly, but effectively make the reader focus a little harder on certain words and sentences. 