“Joyas Volardores, Flying Jewels,” (Doyle 94). According to the novelist Brian Doyle, that is the name the first white explorers gave the hummingbird. The hummingbird, with Doyle comparing the size of its’ heart to a pencil eraser. In his prose poem “Joyas Volardores,” Doyle writes, “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” (95). In this poem, which is often regarded as his best-known work, Doyle uses elements of comparison between animals and humans to support his overall point that despite the differing sizes of species hearts, it is ultimately the love that is held within them that both helps and hurts individuals lives. 

The first species heart Doyle describes is that of a hummingbird, using the significance of the small size of its’ heart to represent his point of the importance being what the heart holds, not his size. He starts the opening of this prose poem with, “Consider the hummingbird for a long moment. A hummingbird’s heart beats ten times a second… A hummingbird’s heart is a lot of the hummingbird” (94). While the hummingbird’s heart is small, it is very important to the life of the hummingbird. Doyle uses this comparison to support his argument in that the size of the species heart is not of any importance. The hummingbird can still hold in its’ heart as much as any other species or individual. Furthermore, the hummingbird can also be both aided and hurt by what is held in its’ heart. Their hearts’ metabolisms allow them to fly, but the decrease in temperature of their heart on a cold night could ultimately lead to their death. They could find another hummingbird to spend their time loving, or they could not. The hummingbird can be affected both negatively and positively by their heart and all it holds in the same way any other species can, and that is the important point Doyle is trying to make.  

The second species heart Doyle goes in depth about is that of the Blue Whale. It is the biggest heart in the world. Doyle writes, “A child could walk around it, head high, bending only to step through the valves” (95). This heart weighs more than seven tons.  In comparison to the heart of the hummingbird, it is about 200,000 times the size. To a human beings’ heart, it is about 20,400 times the size. Although Doyle points out that not much is known about the species of the Blue Whale, one thing that is known is that they travel in pairs. A heart 200,000 times bigger than a pencil eraser is still capable of being aided by the love held in it, just as how that heart the size of a pencil eraser is. And if the Blue Whale loses its’ pair? That aid provided turns into hurt of what’s lost. The same situation of hurt versus help that applies to the Hummingbird and its’ minuscule heart, and to all human hearts, applies to the Blue Whale and its’ giant one. 

Doyle’s overall point becomes apparent in the final paragraph of his poem. He states, “So much held in a heart in a lifetime. So much held in a heart in a day, an hour, a moment” (96). Doyle is stating this about all the species he has previously discussed in the poem. Despite the difference in size of the hearts of the “Joyas Volardores” and the Blue Whale, as well as the hearts of human beings themselves, all the hearts hold so much love. Doyle writes, “When young we think there will come one person who will savor and sustain us always; when we are older we know this is the dream of a child, that all hearts finally are bruised and scarred, scored and torn, repaired by time and will, patched by force of character, yet fragile and rickety forevermore” (96). Dreaming about this love as a child, or a young animal, is where our hearts help us. That love, that hope that a feeling of wholeness in the heart can be found in another person, is Doyle’s point that this love in a heart can be helpful.  However, this love can evidently be hurtful as well. As Doyle stated, it can lead any species heart to be “bruised and scarred,” and “scored and torn.” 

Brian Doyle uses elements of comparison between different species hearts in his prose poem “Joyas Volardores” to support his theme that no matter the size of the species heart, all the amount of love held within leads to that individuals both aid and pain. The Hummingbird can find pain in love just as easily as the Blue Whale can, despite the fact that one’s heart is the size of a pencil eraser, the other the size of a room. That same Blue Whale can find happiness in love, that happiness aiding what they have to deal with every day, just as easily as a human being can find their happiness in love. The size of the heart does not matter, what matters is what is held within and how one is affected by that love held within. In a lifetime, an individual is bound to have their stressors seem just a bit easier because of the love they feel for someone, or something. That individual is also bound to have their heart broken, at least once or twice. No matter the size of the heart, all species are generally affected by the love within that heart in the same way. 
