Broken Heart Poem by John Donne
The broken heart is a love poem . In this poem John Donne has a broken heart and he embodies his suffering in a various dramatic ways. As he wants to show us that the grief in love is much more than any other kinds of griefs in life. In the title of the poem John Donne depicts his heart as somethig material such as a broken mirror or glass. So he pointes out that when someone’s heart is broken , it makes his life miserable and can not be able to fall in love any more.
He also describes how his beloved shattered his heart into a million of pecies. Firstly the broken heart poem is consists of 4 stanzas in ab ab cc dd rhyme. the title of the poem revealed to what extent love kills our soul. The poet takes to his audience and readers as he begins his poem with a strong statement that anyone who disagrees with his argument about love is (stark mad) indicating that we may fall in love quickly but we can not recover from it easily. He adding that he himself suffered from love.
When John says (I have had the plague) he do not mean the diseases itself but he means the suffering in love and the effects of broken heart is similar to the plague. Even the one who fall in love for just t an hour,would suffers (decays). He also uses (a flash of powder) to declear the burning of love. In the second stanza John personificates love in cruel imagery as adestroyer,killer or wild fish. Moreover he compares the griefs and suffering in love with other kinds of griefs. rom his point of view ;even other griefs are not selfish as the grief in love moreover other griefs and sadness come to by nature but we go to love by our own will , Johne Donne personificates love by calling it (he) and he also embodies it as agun or cannonball which may kill a whole town or army of soldiers by one shot( by chain’d shot , whole ranks do die) or as wild fish who swallows smaller fish without ant mercy(a tyrant pike) consequently the speaker showed that love has no mercy. In the third stanza the speaker talkes about his beloved;the woman who broke his heart.
He depicts his miserable love story as he walking into aroom carring his heart and suddenly he sees his beloved ,offering his heart for her but what a disappointment!! She refuses his love, breaking his heart by her rejection. John embodies his heart like a mirror or glass which broke into a lot of sharp pieces. we now deduce that his love is a one- sided love. In the final stanza he tells his audience the negative effect of love on his heart which makes him enable to live his normal live again. His heart’s wound never gone, besides keeping it in his breast.
He may recollect the pieces of his heart but his heart will never be fixed again( those pieces still,though they not be unite). He concludes his poem by saying that his broken heart can like,wish and admire but he never fall in love again. The tone of the poem is sad and melancholy. In this poem John uses avarious of imagery such as a visual images as in (I saw /a flash of powder/draws/pieces/ abroken glasses/a hundred lesser faces), auditory images as in(says /swear/ laugh ),gustatory images as in (swallows/chaws). He uses alliteration such as (says /decays ) (say /day) (show /know).
We all know that one of John Donne ‘s quality in poet ; his hyperbole as he exaggerates in his feelings and this is declear in his title (broken heart)and his description for his suffering (broken glasses / hundred lesser faces),he also depicts love in the image of destructive tool (the chain’d shot,whole ranks do die) or in awild fish (tyrant pike). As well he uses figure of speech ;metaphore as in (broken heart /trifle is a heart /plague/flash of powder/the tyrant pike) and simile as in (by him as by chain’d shot). To sum up we could deduce some of 17th century –love features and to what extent they hyperbole in their feelings .
