
Fear of heartbreak is a looming feeling every human faces. Whether it be loss, failure, or death, experiences like these harrow the hearts of people each day, no matter how high or sturdy the walls around their heart may be. In Brian Doyle’s Joyas Volardores, the author draws attention to the physical and emotional properties of the hearts among all creatures, and explains that even though hearts may vary in size and strength, there is no way to avoid the scars that weaken all hearts. He also dives into the idea that even though creatures cannot control how long their hearts beat, they can control how they choose to fulfill their allotted time. Most importantly, Doyle argues that all we remember are memories, since death is unavoidable. Doyle’s work proves the strengths and weaknesses of hearts, the little control creatures have on their lives, and the inevitable death of all creatures.

Doyle begins his poem focusing on a hummingbird, and providing factual data about this animal. He uses careful diction in describing the power of the tiny hearts which exaggerates the physical strength of hearts, and downplays the emotional stress which he later explains. He uses words like “whirring…zooming…hammering…eye-popping…insane…and incredible enormous immense ferocious metabolisms” (Doyle 95). The author’s word choice reflects the irony among such small creatures, in that they are so physically fragile, but contain hearts more powerful than any other creature. To contrast the explanation of the hummingbird, Doyle then uses the example of a blue whale – the largest creature on earth. The author uses words such as “biggest…tons…chamber…house…hundred…and unimaginable” (Doyle 95) to describe the heart of the whale. He does this to show how powerful and strong hearts are, whether in one of the smallest or largest animals on earth. He points out that “A hummingbird’s heart is a lot of the hummingbird” (Doyle 94). This proves again that no matter how small and delicate a heart may be; it still has the ability to power something so complex. “Their hearts are stripped to the skin for the war against gravity and inertia, the mad search for food, the insane idea of flight” (Doyle 95). The hummingbirds’ hearts, like humans, are always facing harm. Though the bird’s harm may be in more of a physical sense, humans constantly face a more emotional distress and heartbreak through the let downs and troubles of life. The author continues to explain the idea that all creatures inevitably experience heartache and death by saying, “We are utterly open with no one in the end…Perhaps we could not bear to be so naked, for fear of a constantly harrowed heart…You can brick up your heart as stout and tight and hard and cold and impregnable as you possibly can and down it comes in an instant” (Doyle 96). Heartbreak is inevitable. No matter how hard people try to push things away and build up walls, their hearts are guaranteed to suffer because they are afraid of losing. Whether it be a relationship, a person, or a memory, these are all people have to define their experiences in life.

Due to the fragility of hearts, they will eventually wear out. All creatures will beat their last beat. Just as the author explained already, hearts are fragile organs, and they unavoidably wear out. Doyle exemplifies the hummingbird once more saying, “It’s expensive to fly. You burn out. You fry the machine. You melt the engine” (Doyle 95). With all the energy hummingbirds put into their speed and constant flight, their miniscule bodies can no longer take the effort. Though they cannot control when their bodies will give out. The author preaches that “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). Doyle is teaching the reader that physically, all hearts will give out with no control over when. Though in the emotional sense, he is telling the reader that the only way we can control our lives is by choosing how to live them. People cannot choose how fast their heart beats or how long they live, but they can choose how they spend their lives and write their own story. Doyle adds, “So much is held in a heart in a lifetime. So much held in a heart in a day, an hour, a moment” (Doyle 95). This adds to the idea that humans can fulfill their own lives. There is so much humans can do with themselves and can make their lives as full as they want, all due to the emotional elasticity of the human heart. When dealing with grief, a human feels several emotions leading to the coping of their traumatic event. First humans exhibit denial, followed by anger, bargaining, depression, and finally, acceptance. The elasticity of emotions allows humans to bounce back from adversity and experience joy and excitement in other positive experiences. Physically, the quantity and length of the lives of hearts cannot be changed, but the quality with which it is spent, is all that can be controlled.

The idea that death is universal and uncontrollable is highlighted throughout Doyle’s work. He uses examples of different animals throughout the poem, discussing the hummingbird, then defining different species of hummingbirds such as “bearded-helmet crests and booted racket-tails, violet-tailed sylphs…rainbow-bearded thorn bills” (Doyle 95). The variety amongst the hummingbird species shows the variety of life and how many different ways life can be lived. But Doyle then uses this variety by moving from the hummingbird and blue whale examples, into saying that all mammals, birds, reptiles, turtles, fish, mollusks, and worms all have their own hearts – all of different sizes. Doyle then adds, “Unicellular bacteria have no hearts at all; but even they have fluid eternally in motion, washing from one side of the cell to the other, swirling and whirling. No living being is without interior liquid motion. We all churn inside” (Doyle 95). All creatures live and move but eventually experience death. It is a fact of life. Death is universal, and completely unavoidable for every living thing. Doyle concludes his poem by sharing memories that many people experience. He leaves the reader with the idea that our hearts can be “felled by a woman’s second glance…the words I have something to tell you…the memory of your father’s voice early in the morning echoing from the kitchen where he is making pancakes for his children” (Doyle 96). The story ends in the middle of the author’s thoughts and memories – almost as if it were an incomplete set of thoughts. This symbolizes the fact that humans have no control over death. There is no telling exactly how or when someone will die. Doyle has left the reader in the middle of his thoughts, which can be interpreted by the reader that the author has died. When everything is gone, all humans have left are their thoughts. Eventually they die alone with no way to pass along all of their memories, and the only way others can remember them is through the memories they have kept in their hearts.

Joyas Volardores shows the physical and emotional limitations of hearts, the only control humans can have on their lives, and the unavoidable powers of death. The physical properties of living creatures’ hearts can support so much, but as the let downs in life reach somebody’s heart, they can never be truly fixed. American singer-songwriter, John Mayer has described life’s heartbreaks in his music by stating, “Good to know it’s all a game, disappointment has a name…it’s heartbreak warfare”. People are always battling the disappointment they face in life, using the strength and elasticity of their heart to fight the negative emotions and fulfill a happy life. There is no way to avoid the effects these heartbreaks have on people’s hearts, and no way to avoid death. Only when people choose to fulfill their lives with their experiences and memories will they be able to disregard the heartbreaks in their lives and focus on the experiences that brought them joy.
