The prose poem “Joyas Volardores”, written by Brain Doyle, is not about whales and hummingbirds; it is about how humans choose to live their lives, whether it is fast or slow. The reader can find many different literary devices used throughout the poem to make this conclusion. Brain Doyle used literary devices to make apparent his true meaning hidden behind the text. Using literary devices is the authors way of leading the reader to text that can be broken down further. Literary devices can also be used as hints, from the author, to guide the reader to the deeper meaning, and truth with in the text. When focused on 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 writing. Brian Doyle chose to use reduplicating of a single letter, as his form of emphasis in “Joyas Volardores”. An example is on page 95 in the word “waaaaay.” The emphasis put on the word way obviously draws the reader’s 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 fact is unbelievably shocking, and almost hard to imagine. Without the emphasis added to “waaaaay” the reader would have continued reading never realizing the magnitude of the sentence. 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 making the reader feel grief and sadness. Is the text really talking specifically about hummingbirds? Looking at the quote, anything can replace the word hummingbirds. Consider for a moment those people who did not open their eyes today. The revised version, stated previously, 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 pathos is used in is “No living being is without interior liquid motion. We all churn inside” (Doyle 96). Doyle starts the paragraph by talking about different animals and their heart structures, but brings it back to “We”, as in humans. The reader realizes how similar people are to all of earths other creatures. Every being contains that one thing inside them that keeps them going. 

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). 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 a large amount of love to give, then he or she is going to want to be with another animal, to express, and put his or her love to use. In using common knowledge, the reader can network what they know about love to realize how the quote makes perfect sense. By taking the quote, and reading it backwards, 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 his or her head. Most of the sentences and words Brain Doyle made 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. Logos helped the reader connect two logical things together to make a discovery. Brain Doyle used literary devices in ways that would subtly, but effectively, make the reader focus a little harder on certain words and sentences. 