In Brian Doyle’s prose poem, Joyas Volardores, he relates the hearts of different animals to people. He begins his poem by describing the physical characteristics of the heart of an animal, and then he transitions to relating the empathetic characteristics of various animals to people. He describes their lifestyles and what kind of personalities they have. He does this to show that as different as people may seem from the animals, there are many similarities. Doyle uses empathetic characteristics and physical characteristics of the hearts of animals to show that as different as people may seem when compared to animals, there is a lot of similarities as can be seen in the text through the hummingbird, blue whale and people.

The physical descriptions of the animals’ hearts serve to create contrast between the vast varieties of creatures within the animal kingdom and us as human beings. Doyle begins his poem by describing some of the physical characteristics of hummingbirds’ hearts. He describes their heart as “the size of a pencil eraser”, and that it “beats ten times a second” (Doyle 94). He also states that a hummingbird’s heart beat is too fast for the human ear to hear (Doyle 94). Doyle uses the hummingbird because of it’s incredibly small heart and fast heart beat in comparison with a human heart which is about the size of a fist and whose beat is slower, smoother and more steady. The next animal Doyle uses is the blue whale. Not only is the blue whale the biggest animal on the planet, it also has the world’s biggest heart. “It weighs more than seven tons”, “It’s as big as a room”, “a child could walk around it, head high, bending only to step through the valves” (Doyle 95). Doyle also uses the size of the blue whale’s heart in comparison to the hummingbird and people. Where a human heart is the size of a fist and a hummingbird’s heart is incredibly small, a fully grown blue whale’s heart is the size of a room. Doyle uses the hearts of a hummingbird and blue whale to contrast with because of how different these animals’ hearts are from people. He makes it seem like the animals and people have nothing in common.  

After initially describing some of the physical characteristics of the hearts of the hummingbird and blue whale, Doyle transitions to describing the animals’ lifestyles and personalities. The hummingbird “visit a thousand flowers a day” and “they can fly more than five hundred miles without pausing to rest” (Doyle 95). This shows how the hummingbird is a very active animal, always on the move and hardly ever resting. This bird is similar to the type of people who are always busy and always have something to do, the workaholics. Those who seem they can do it all. But the blue whale on the other hand is a rather calmer animal who feels no rush to get anything done. These kings of the sea live a more graceful and peaceful lifestyle as they slowly traverse the earth’s vast oceans with no means of rushing to get anything done. They are more laid back and relaxed rather than always on the move, moving from place to place as can be seen by the hummingbird. Doyle uses the blue whale to correlate with the type of people who live simpler lives and do not like to rush. The people who take their time and accomplish tasks one at a time rather than as fast as possible. The blue whale is also known to “nurture their young” and to “generally travel in pairs, and their penetrating moaning cries, their piercing yearning tongue, can be heard underwater for miles and miles” (Doyle 96). The compulsion to travel in pairs, use unique sounds to communicate, and nurture their young makes these obscure animals seem ever so relatable. Humans are social creatures where communication is a big role in everyday life. Humans also nurture their young just as the blue whale does. This shows how even when the blue whale is a completely different creature, it still has a lot in common with people.

Throughout the poem, Doyle uses a lot of information to appeal to the reader’s emotions “But when they rest they come close to death”, “and if they are not soon warmed…they cease to be” (95). This quote refers to hummingbirds either dying or almost dying when they are finally able to take a break and rest. The author is appealing to the reader’s emotions making them sad and feel sympathy for the animal because their life is so fragile. In the final paragraph of the poem, Doyle describes a variety of extremely relatable scenarios in order to pull on the heartstrings of the reader. “So much held in a heart in a lifetime. So much held in a heart in a day, an hour, a moment” (Doyle 96). Doyle is trying to explain how important one’s heart and life is. That there is so much to life and in the heart that can be taken away at any moment like in the hummingbird’s case, where it can die from working too hard or when it comes to rest. By connecting the readers to their personal lives, he is able to further drive home the connection he was trying to make earlier in the poem between animals’ natural inclinations and the personalities of people. By first contrasting the physical characteristics of the animals’ hearts and then transitioning to relating the empathetic characteristics of them, Doyle is attempting to make a connection between the natural characteristics of various living creatures, and the wide range of human personalities found throughout society. 

Doyle uses empathetic characteristics and physical characteristics of the hearts of animals to show that as different as people may seem when compared to animals, there is a lot of similarities as can be seen in the text through the hummingbird, blue whale and people. The entire work is structured such that it creates a full circle creating physical contrast between human and animal hearts yet also forming emotional connections between them. Doyle speaks of both extremes, the smallest of the small, the hummingbird, and the largest of the large, the blue whale. He does this in order to try and draw connections between living creatures who are immensely different. With the hummingbirds, Doyle initially describes their hearts as being incredibly small with a rapid heart rate but then he transitioned to relating this animal to the workaholics of society. Those who work a lot and get as much done as fast as possible. Doyle then begins discussing the blue whale, the largest animal in the world with the largest heart. This is a social animal that communicates to other whales and also prefers traveling the sea in pairs. This animal is related to the more relaxed people of society. Those who do things one at a time rather than all at once. Doyle contrasts the physical characteristics of the hearts of the different animals and then he shifts towards relating their empathetic characteristics to people as can be seen through the hummingbirds, blue whales and people discussed in the text.
