Fifteen score years ago, one of the most prominent figures of our history remarked, “In the end, it’s not the years in our life that count, it’s the life in our years.”  This famous adage was given by Abraham Lincoln, a strong advocate of equal and fulfilled lives for everyone.  The essence of this given quotation Lincoln’s remarks, is that life is about the fulfillment, not the length.  Author, Brian Doyle, raises similar questions of how to assess the value of one’s life. For example, Doyle constructed the writing, “Joyas Volardores,” in 2004, to discuss the importance of the heart in all living beings.  Doyle’s son was born with only three out of the four chambers in his heart.  From this, Doyle garnered what life was really like tending to a fragile heart.  Throughout the poem, “Joyas Volardores,” Brian Doyle address the fragility of the heart of the hummingbird and explains the riskiness and uncertainty of a hummingbird’s life.  On average, a hummingbird’s heart beats nearly ten times a second, six hundred times a minute, and nearly eight times as fast as humans’ hearts beats per minute.   In this, the author describes the many differences between the life of the hummingbird and other living creatures.  Above all other species, hummingbirds suffer from the most heart attacks, aneurysms, and ruptures during their lifetime; thus making their lives very abrupt and short.  Doyle has readers take this into account to then compare the heart and life of the hummingbird to those of a tortoise.  Tortoises can live to be two hundred years old, but live life at a much slower pace than a hummingbird.  With this, Doyle includes that there are approximately two billion heartbeats in one lifetime, and raises the question of whether one should spend those heartbeats like a hummingbird or like a tortoise.  He then transitions to discuss the large heart of the blue whale and the loving nature that blue whales are a part of. Then he speaks about the hearts of worms, and many other creatures, and then ties in a metaphor of a house to symbolize a human heart.  All this discussion of the uniqueness of animal hearts and their relation to human hearts raises many questions about the value of life.  Does the duration or size or fragility of a heart determine the capacity of an individual’s life? Or is there more of a purpose or value in one’s life?  In “Joyas Volardores,” Brian Doyle contrasts measuring life by lengths of time and measuring life by depths of love through images of the heart, but emphasizes the value in the use of each measurement.

Throughout the poem, “Joyas Volardores,” Brian Doyle address the fragility of the heart of the hummingbird and explains the riskiness and uncertainty of a hummingbird’s life.  On average, a hummingbird’s heart beats nearly ten times a second, six hundred times a minute, and nearly eight times as fast as humans’ hearts beats per minute.   In this, the author describes the many differences between the life of the hummingbird and other living creatures.  Above all other species, hummingbirds suffer from the most heart attacks, aneurysms, and ruptures during their lifetime; thus making their lives very abrupt and short.  Doyle has readers take this into account to then compare the heart and life of the hummingbird to those of a tortoise.  Tortoises can live to be two hundred years old, but live life at a much slower pace than a hummingbird.  With this, Doyle includes that there are approximately two billion heartbeats in one lifetime, and raises the question of whether one should spend those heartbeats like a hummingbird or like a tortoise.  He then transitions to discuss the large heart of the blue whale and the loving nature that blue whales are a part of. Then he speaks about the hearts of worms, and many other creatures, and then ties in a metaphor of a house to symbolize a human heart.

The topic of the hummingbird is carried through mostly the first half of the poem.  The author stresses on the fragility of the hummingbird’s heart, and its short lifespan, to manifest how precious life can really be.  In the matter of seconds a hummingbird’s heart can end in a flash.  Since hummingbird’s are always about, flying around, they give hardly any time for sleep, since their hearts are constantly beating so fast.  The author goes into a brief description of a hummingbird’s risk of sleep, where he adds, “their hearts sludging nearly to a halt, barely beating, and if they are not soon warmed, if they do not soon find that which is sweet, their hearts grow cold, and they cease to be. Consider for a moment those hummingbirds who did not open their eyes again today, this very day.” (Doyle 2)  The power in this quotation is an evident relation to the preciousness of life.  “If they are not soon warmed.” (2) Our hearts need to be warmed in order to go on.  Sometimes, this doesn’t mean in a biological sense, but in a metaphorical sense.  Related to how life can be measured through depths of love, a person’s life is ideal when the individual is happy and content.  The heart is then satisfied and “warmed.”  However, often we may see individuals refer to their hearts as “cold,” and those are the individuals that are slowly dying inside. Just as in the description of the hummingbird, “if they do not soon find that which is sweet, their hearts grow cold, and they cease to be;” signifying death for those with the unsatisfied hearts.

The comparison of the tortoise to the hummingbird is an important moment in the poem, the description of a tortoise’s life is very brief however, the message of the comparison is very evident.  Within the comparison the author includes, “Every creature on earth has approximately two billion heartbeat 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.” (2)  This short but clear comparison is a convincing example of how the measurement of life in length of time is more important.  As humans, we often never take into account that there may be a specific time in the end of our lives where our hearts will inevitably give its very last beat. Through all the technology created in the modern day, there is no way to escape death, and Doyle argues that the amount of time before death is essential.  One’s life is given by a certain time, and some can choose to live life for a longer time but possibly less excitement.  This is the instance in the poem where Doyle offers the suggestion of whether living life like a tortoise is more important than living life like a hummingbird, expressing how lengths of a lifespan may define a more fulfilled life. 

The author moves on to comprise the description of the blue whale and the significance of its heart, the largest heart on the planet.  The blue whale is known as the biggest creature on earth, thus having the biggest heart on earth.  Why is this important?  Mostly because whales, known for their size, are also famous for their loving and caring nature.  Most humans are unaware of how often affectionate whales are for their own species.  Doyle includes in his description of the blue whale, “Of the largest animal who ever lived we know nearly nothing. But we know this: the animals with the largest hearts in the world generally travel in paris, and their penetrating moaning cries, their piercing yearning tongue can be heard underwater for miles and miles.” (3)  This statement is bold, and the wording the author uses supports the idea of a loving nature and a large heart in a humanized sense.  “Animals with the largest hearts in the world generally travel in pairs.”(3)  If we take this quotation and look outside the context, all we see is a creature that has a large heart and likes to travel in pairs.  Putting this into a literacy perspective, we generally think of those with large hearts as individuals with an abundance of love.  Perhaps, when we think those with large hearts who travel in pairs, we may relate this to a married couple, or possibly a symbol of an individual’s relationship with the rest of the world.  A noteworthy part of the authors description of the whale, is that, not once does he ever put any time stamp on the whale’ lifespan.  The author does this to stress that in contrast to the length of a creature’s lifespan, perhaps time isn’t the most vital way to measure the capacity of one’s life. 

From both of these measurements of a heart’s capacity brings a provoking discussion question.  Which is more important?  Life’s measurement of lengths of time, or in depths of love?  Although Doyle does offer both in their own essential ways, most of the messages he includes are to favor how life should be measured by something more than time.  He surfaces both ideas so that the reader interprets the significance of both.  However, the way the author structures both messages into the poem is interesting.  He immediately includes the heart examples of a hummingbird, to express the fragility of life, in the beginning of the poem.  Then compares the short lived life of a hummingbird to the long lived life of a whale.  The context of the hummingbird is intentionally put towards the beginning of the poem so that the author can offer up the importance of one way to measure life before presenting the possibly more conclusive alternative.  Generally in literature, writers like to leave their more powerful messages towards the end, because it will leave a more lasting impact on the reader.  Thus, perhaps why Doyle stressed the importance of measuring life through depths of love towards the end of the poem.  He concludes the poem on the topic of love, and the ways humans’ hearts may be satisfied.  In the end, the author stimulates the reader to relate the entire poem to their own lives, and to decide how one individual should define its life’s fulfillment. 
