Failed love, resulting in broken hearts,
is an on-going topic in literature. We can all relate to the intensity of
feelings that surround us as we hopelessly fall victim to the snare of love.
Love often creeps open us unawares; and, so often, the object of our
infatuation is totally oblivious of our true feeling. Even when love lasts
long, one of the lovers may be struck more deeply and crave more intimacy,
never feeling that his or her deepest desires are understood. The speaker of
“The Broken Heart,” written by John Donne, shows the consistency with which
love occurs in the world, while at the same time denouncing love as a demon
that steals from us our hearts and being. He conveys these attitudes through
the use of form, rhyme, figurative language, and imagery.
Each stanza of the poem follows an
ababccdd rhyme scheme. It is interesting to note that the abab at the beginning
of each stanza could represent each part of a couple, and then the ccdd
couplets could represent a marriage or unity. Yet the speaker conveys that he
feels love is not consistent and love does not leave him whole, but fractured.
In a sense love does not exist in time, and love is timeless. It cannot last
for one hour, yet it can burn up ten loves during that time (lines 1-4). One
can enter a room with his heart in his bosom, and leave the room without his
heart (lines 19-20). He intimates that love swallows you whole and does not
take the time to savor or cherish you; rather it devours you (line 14).
The iams in each line give a steady
marching sound. Life does continue to march onward whether the lover is ready or not. Most of the lines contain eight syllables, excepting the second b
line and the last couplet dd. These lines are out of sync with the rest of the
poem. This could suggest that the lover is out of sync with his ability to
express, contain, or retain his love. He speaks to the lover he cannot see,
telling her that his heart was stolen when he first saw her (lines 17-18). He
uses a pun with the word trifle, expressing that he feels slighted and that his
lover has played with his heart leaving him nothing but grief (lines 9-12).
The speaker reasons with himself that if
there were nothing to begin with, then nothing is lost (line 25). But his
attitude throughout the poem shows that love has robbed him. Maybe if he could
have expressed himself better, his love would have loved him and had pity on
him. But with only one look towards her, all of his confidence is shattered
(lines 21-24). The imagery of his tattered heart is carried further as he
describes his heart as “rags of heart” (line 31). His experience with love has
made him diminished, and he feels entirely hopeless. In sad abandonment he
announces that he “can love no more” (line 32).
Lost love is a timeless theme. We can
sympathize with the speaker’s attitude that love is all-consuming and
devouring. He has felt drained and shattered by the experience, and he relates
those feeling to us through the use of form and rhyme, language and imagery. He
determines to tell the reader that he will never love again; and yet, in truth,
the speaker implies that he will. Love can devour ten within an hour’s time
(line 4). As the rhyme and rhythm and form continue to work the same throughout
the poem, love will again work its untimely deed upon the speaker and upon the
readers as well.
