In the prose poem “Joyas Volardores”, the author Brian Doyle uses imagery from his scientific knowledge of hearts to create a metaphorical and physical connection between different beings. The connections he creates show that the heart itself is the most open organ in any living being.

In the beginning of Doyle’s work, the hummingbird, and especially its heart, are analyzed. He does this by first comparing the hummingbird’s heart to different objects and then the hummingbird to life itself. For example, while a hummingbird only has a heart the size of an eraser, their hearts beat faster than a human could ever hear. One would think that Doyle believes the hummingbird is the most powerful creature on earth after delving into the first paragraphs of “Joyas Volardores”. Some of the facts he uses, like “They can dive at sixty miles an hour. They can fly backwards. They can fly more than five hundred miles without pausing to rest” (Doyle 95) show just how in awe the author is of the “flying jewels”. But, he then goes on to admit that the hummingbird is truly a very weak animal. Doyle explains this by giving some more facts, but perhaps not quite as amazing as before. Because the hummingbird’s heart beats so fast, it only lives to be about two years old. Also, when they finally rest after flying five hundred miles a day, their heart rate slows so much that many die. Doyle goes through many paragraphs and descriptions and facts for what is seemingly meaningless. But the reason he spends so much time discussing the strength yet the frailty of the hummingbird’s heart, is to show ultimately that the heart is a fragile organ. In the hummingbird it is always left open, there is no time for it to be closed. The constant and rapid beating keep the hummingbird running at a high speed. But when the hummingbird finally runs out of energy, or finally has to take a rest, the heart remains open without being able to protect itself. This then yields death in most cases. Doyle is trying to say that the heart is open to pain and suffering when not protected.

In the middle of the prose poem, Doyle then moves on to discuss another animal, the blue whale. Strikingly different than the hummingbird with a pencil eraser heart, the blue whale has the biggest heart in the entire world. Doyle compares the blue whale’s heart to a room, wide enough a human child could walk in. Like when he described the hummingbird, listed out like a scientific research paper, Doyle gives many facts about the blue whale’s heart and how it powers such a large being. The blue whale needs a gallon of milk a day and is twenty feet long when it is first born. It is “waaaay bigger than a car” (Doyle 95). The author, like when he described the hummingbird, seems to only think well of the strong and giant blue whale with its giant heart. But he then shows that blue whales really do not have such a good heart by giving some information that does not make the blue whale sound so tough. In fact, blue whales travel only in pairs after puberty. They have a sad, piercing moan that can resonate throughout the ocean for many miles. These two facts do not sound like the ferocious blue whale that is bigger than a car at birth. Doyle lists out these seemingly random facts, like with the hummingbird, for a purpose, though. He wants to convey to the reader that the whale’s heart is also always open. He literally calls it a room. A whale, once it becomes an adult, leaves its heart open enough to make a lifelong mate, a travel partner for the rest of its life. Doyle is trying to show an example of an open heart that does not get hurt in the end, like most people believe will happen. 

The entire essay pretty much leads up to the final paragraph where the author Brian Doyle starts discussing the human heart. Unlike with the other two animals, Doyle goes straight to the negative when describing the human heart. He calls the human heart “utterly open with no one in the end” (Doyle 96). He says this because he believes that no one, not a parent or lover or child, will truly be able to fill one’s heart completely in a lifetime. Doyle best describes this when he says “We open windows to each but we live alone in the house of the heart” (96). Humans seem to think that their only life purpose is to fall in love and be happy. But that is why Doyle wrote this paragraph. He knows that an open heart is something that is too hopeful in a world that is unforgiving. This whole idea is a little too negative, though, so Doyle then continues to explain why he thinks this is true. He states that when humans are young they believe there is one person out there, their other half, that will forever complete them. But as the human leaves their hearts open to this possibility, all of the ex-lovers start to hurt the heart. So when humans get older they build walls around their hearts to try to keep them closed up. For the first time in his prose poem, Doyle admits that an animal does close its heart. But, the final line of the prose poem goes back to his original idea that the heart is always open. He lists all of the ways a wall around a heart can fall in an instant, like “a woman’s second glance” or “the brush of your mother’s papery ancient hand in the thicket of your hair” (96). Doyle writes this because he wants to show that all people can have the walls around their hearts fall for any random reason. He writes this last paragraph to show how weak a human heart can be when completely open and vulnerable to love, but how lonely it can be when completely closed.

Brian Doyle, the author of “Joyas Voladores” on the outside seems really obsessed with anatomy. But as one reads deeper into his prose poem, one can understand that he does this to make a point about humans. He wants to show that a heart open to love and life’s experiences, although seemingly weaker, is always better than a heart packed away and alone.
