
What merely is a heart? Heart: the central or innermost part of something. The prose poem, Joyas Volardores, by Brian Doyle, talks about the physical and metaphorical properties of the heart. He goes in to great detail pertaining to the heart of the Hummingbird, Blue Whale, and lastly, the human heart. Doyle talks about the various walks of life and how all species have fluid motion inside of them and a heart. I am going to present the idea that the heart serves as an equalizer amongst all species; both non-humans and humans alike go through a life-time of experiences, which leaves an empty void in our hearts and ultimately on our own. 

First off, I’ll discuss the text relating to the hummingbird. Doyle goes into extensive detail about the hummingbird. The hummingbirds’ heart is the size of a pencil eraser. Their heart beats ten times a second and they fly 500 miles without rest. But when they come to rest, they come close to death. The hummingbird flies non-stop and lives an intense life, its ambition to constantly be on the move is the result of its downfall. The hummingbird species suffers from the most heart attacks and aneurysms than any other living creature due to its fast-paced heartbeat. Unless the hummingbird does not find what is “sweet”, it will die. When Doyle says, “If they do not soon find which is sweet, their hearts grow cold, and they cease to be”. The word sweet means everything in this context. What is something “sweet” referring to? Here it can have multiple meanings. It can mean berries or other fruits the hummingbird needs to survive, or a mate of some sort to keep it warm. In the end, it dies and fails to obtain the sweet substance. Doyle really makes you think about the dead hummingbird, “a brilliant music stilled”. The sweet little bird dies after a short life filled with nothing but adventure. In this case the empty void here is not only the “sweet” substance, but the longevity of life itself. Immediately after the paragraph about the hummingbirds, Doyle takes a different approach in his next example.

Now, Doyle talks about the Blue Whale. He describes the Whales heart to be as big as a room and has four chamber that a small child could easily walk through. When the Whale is 7-8 years old it essentially disappears from human ken. Not much is known about the species except for the fact that they generally travel in pairs. Doyle says, “Their penetrating moaning cries, their piercing tongue, can be heard underwater for miles and miles”. He put that sentence in there to emphasize the unsettling life-style which the Whales live in and the phrase “moaning cries” captures the essence of the idea of aloneness. Now to the important part; why does Doyle go from one of the smallest hearts (hummingbird), to the largest heart (blue whale)? It all circulates back to my argument above, Doyle is trying to show that despite physical differences in the heart, they are going through the same thing in the end. The “sweet” thing that the Blue Whale is longing is its family, a lifetime of struggle. Both the hummingbird and whale alike share the same qualities of a certain emptiness in their lives. Doyle specifically discusses about the unfortunate realities of the animals lives to clearly get the theme of sorrow and pain into the readers mind. Through the first two examples Doyle provides having a heart, experiencing sorrow, and loneliness, which is parallel to my thesis above. 

The last paragraph of the prose poem dives into the human heart. Doyle puts the human-heart paragraph last, to get his point across from what he was previously trying to say through the examples of the other animals. We leave our windows wide open but end up alone in the end. This means we can let people into our hearts but ultimately we are the only ones who know what we personally feel and no one else can tell you differently. This part of the reading is the most clear for the reader because it pertains to us humans. Doyle describes how we can try to brick up our hearts and repair it by time and will, just to be brought back down in an instant by a catastrophic event that happened in your life that nothing could prepare you for. What comes to mind when I read this for me is someone passing away who you love. The heart is so fragile and you can put on a strong face for so long until you get eaten up alive by the harsh reality of life.

In conclusion, Doyle hasn’t been talking about the different animals’ hearts for no reason. “Joyas Volardores” means “Flying Jewels” and he brings us to the reality of life that every living species “all churn inside” and the “brilliant music is stilled”. More simply put, even though there are all different types of hearts, we all end up in the same scenario; we all churn inside. We all end up with disappointment of some sort in our lifetimes and it is inevitable. As I wrote this essay, I kept thinking about the alternative; obviously there are many aspects in life to celebrate and rejoice, but that’s not the point here. The argument is regardless of your path in life you end up alone in the end and it’s the cold truth. Me myself, hate to think about it along with most rational human beings and that’s why we simply don’t and instead focus on the beautiful parts of life. The heart is what brings all species together, it’s the equalizer that brings the living together and eventually breaks us down and leads us on the path to depression and sadness. “Every creature on earth has approximately two billion heartbeats to spend 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”. Regardless of what lifestyle you chose, in the end, we all end up the same. Dead and alone. 