Poetry Essay 2

The Broken Heart, by John Donne, portrays someone’s broken heart from an unequal reply of love. Donne uses varied imagery throughout the poem to reveal the speaker’s attitude toward the nature of love.

Various imagery is used throughout the poem which symbolize the condition of the speakers heart. Images of digestion, such as “devour” (line 4) and “swallows chaws” (line 14), show, how love, takes control over the heart. An image of a fire, such as in line 8, shows the agony of the speaker as his heart was broken day by day. Donne reveals the speaker’s feelings of his heart’s death in line 15, “chain’d shot.” Other images such as “broken glass” (line 29) and “rags” (line 31) reveal the weakness and unwholeness of the speaker’s heart.

Through these images there is an attitude that is revealed about the speaker towards the nature of love. Images of pain, death, and darkness reveal an attitude of sorrow and hopelessness. The sorrowful attitude comes from the pair of a broken heart. However, the hopeless attitude is from knowing if this one person does not return the love the speaker has sent, the speaker will never be able to love another person.

The images represented in this poem are symbols of the condition and feelings of the speaker’s heart. From these images, one can determine the attitude of the speaker toward the nature of love