In "Joyas Volardores," Brian Doyle uses descriptive details, a drastic shift in topic, and the misuse of punctuation to keep his audience interested. In this work, his vivid details make the reader not only feel as if they a part of the story, but also helps them to understand the processes discussed. Doyle's dramatic switch in topic catches the readers off guard because of the smooth yet drastic transition. His misuse of punctuation makes the readers pay close attention to what he is attempting to say. All of these elements contribute to making this poem easy to comprehend and captivating for his audience.

The descriptive details in "Joyas Volardores" enable the reader to follow along visually throughout the poem. The author uses many phrases to describe multiple objects, such as the heart of a hummingbird, this gives the reader a clear vision of the object being described. Doyle wrote, "the size of a pencil eraser" referring to the size of a hummingbird's heart. This statement gives the reader a clear mental image of what he is describing. These descriptions help the reader feel as if they are a part of the story or have some type of insight. The details he uses paints a picture of the poem for the readers as they go along. The use of clear comparisons makes it easy for the reader to visually follow the work, which in turn makes in more interesting. Doyle also uses extremely vivid statements such as, "a cat with a broken spine dragging itself into the forest to die." This is a brutal image, but it is definitely one that stands out to the reader and is not commonly used in poetry.

The author not only uses descriptive details to help the reader picture certain subjects, he also uses them to explain how things occur. By doing this it helps the reader to fully understand, or be able to imagine, exactly what is going on. In order to do this, he uses sayings like, "You burn out," to explain what happens to the hummingbirds. Using this commonly used phrase helps the reader relate to what is happening because they automatically know what the phrase refers to. Being able to relate to what happens to the subject in the poem makes it much easier for the reader to comprehend it. The use of common sayings also gives the writing a casual style, which makes the poem relatable to a college audience. Casually styled works make the reader not overthink what they are reading, so therefore it makes comprehending the poem much simpler.

Another aspect of this poem that keeps the audience’s attention is the sudden switch of topic. Shifting from information about hummingbirds and the anatomy of hearts to how much humans hold in their hearts. The transition from one topic to the other is smooth yet drastic, so it catches the reader's eye. This shift in the poem almost appears to be random because it jumps from discussing how many chambers each creature has in its heart, to how "We all churn inside." This phrase is what stands out as the point where the topics shifted.  The fact that the author chose such a strictly informative beginning of the poem, makes the end of the work much more captivating to the reader. The topic change is not expected, so when it occurs it forces the reader to become intrigued by what may be at the end. The switch makes the reader rethink what was read previously in the text. It then causes the reader to think through all of the comparisons in order to try to understand exactly what the author is trying to convey with each of them. Overall, the change of topic aids in captivating the readers’ interest.

The author, Brian Doyle, is also known for his misuse of punctuation. His odd use of punctuations, such as using a semicolon instead of a comma, makes the audience consider what he means by the misuse of the punctuation. The incorrect usage draws attention to where the error occurred. The one must consider if he purposely made the grammatical error on in order to make a point or if he just does not pay attention to grammar rules. In the following quote he even disregards the simplest of grammar rules, “Unicellular bacteria have no hearts at all; but even they…” He chooses to put a semicolon instead of a comma, which makes the reader wonder ‘Why?’ These misuses draw attention because all throughout school students are taught to follow the grammar rules, so they assume famous writings will not contain grammatical errors. The fact that Doyle either does not care about the errors or is doing them on purpose makes his writing stand out.  

Throughout this work the author, Brian Doyle, uses many elements to insure his audience is intrigued and that it is an overall enjoyable poem. The first element he uses is exciting details. They are used to help the reader visually follow along with the poem while also understanding the processes that occur. The second element is an unexpected topic transition is used to catch the audience off guard and keep them interested in the rest of the poem. And the last element is punctuation errors that are used to keep the audience’s attention and make them wonder about the purpose of the error. All of these factors combine together to create a work that keeps the audience enthralled throughout the entirety of the poem.