
In the blink of an eye your life can take a turn down a path you never thought you would have to travel down. Life is short, time is precious, and tomorrow is never promised. Brian Doyle illustrates this perfectly in his prose poem, Joyas Volardores. Doyle compares the structures of the heart of the hummingbird and blue whale to the human heart, relating it back to a more emotional theme, he also develops this emotional theme using not only the comparison approach, but through his word and phrase choice as well.

This poem begins with an explanation of how delicate the life of a hummingbird is and when compared to a human, its anatomy is much more complex. Their hearts are smaller, yet beat faster and are much more lean and stiff. However, when they stop flying their bodies start to shut down and they slowly die. This indicates how life is short and time is precious not just for the hummingbird, but for us all when looked at as a “bigger picture”. Doyle states, “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.”  This phrase makes the reader think about the overall theme and relate it to the passage as a whole. The overall theme consists of emotional and personal attributes that really allow the reader to relate to what they are reading on a more empirical level. This keeps the reader interested throughout the whole reading. Although it seems the author is just talking about hummingbirds in the beginning, he is really using this factual approach to lead up to a more emotional, somewhat personal, delivery. Doyle then goes on to compare the blue whale to humans as well. Even though they are known as the largest animals alive today, there is little to no knowledge on how they live their day to day lives. However, it is known that they have the largest hearts in the world. Their hearts are as big as rooms, big enough for someone to walk around in. The another feature of their biology are their screeching moans that can be heard from miles away. The comparison aspect of this passage has a powerful impact on the theme of emotion and life being short, although it is not evident yet, the reader can see this at the end of the passage.

The use of certain words and phrases can have a huge impact on how a passage makes a reader feel. In Joyas Volardores, Doyle’s choice of words and phrases helps to tie into the theme that time is precious and life is short. On page ninety-four Doyle uses the word, elephantine, meaning; large, clumsy, or awkward. In the same sentence he uses the word, infinitesimal, meaning; extremely small. This creates a comparison between the human ear and the hummingbird’s chest. Then on page ninety-five Doyle speaks about the death of the hummingbird. In doing so, he uses different euphemisms other than just bluntly stating “they died”. “They ceased to be”, “Who did not open their eyes today”, “A brilliant music stilled”, arc all ways he described their death. 

This passage included various examples of comparison, from facts about hummingbirds, whales, and human hearts to the size of a human’s ears and a hummingbird’s chest. Though these animals all seem so different when compared on a scientific level, they’re actually very similar. The small, unique hummingbird, the large, mysterious blue whale, and the common human all work the same way on the inside. All living things die eventually. Tomorrow is never promised for any living thing. Never take a single moment of life for granted because you might wake up tomorrow morning and not be able to tell your best friend, who you told goodnight, good morning or you yourself may not wake up. At the end of the passage Doyle lists several things that almost everyone can relate to on a personal level, such as, “a women’s second glace, a child’s apple breath, the words I have something to tell you”, etc. Doyle pulls the theme together one last time by listing things that will take your breath away because you do not realize how precious they are until they are gone. The purpose of this is to allow the reader to relate and develop a more personal connection to the reading. 