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Denotation Of A Heart In Rita Dove's Heart To Heart

Decent Essays

In people's minds, a heart can break, ache, change, melt, sink, weep, belong, eat, harden, skip, open, rest, steal, leap, learn, faint, and do many other extraordinary feats. Still, what one may not realize is that a heart is just that, a disfigured organ in one’s body that is constantly pumping out blood to keep one alive. Instead of succumbing to the societal connotations of a heart, Rita Dove expresses individuality in “Heart to Heart” by embracing the denotation of a heart. Dove outlines that a heart only sustains life, and it does not contain one’s personality, interests, and values. In this manner, Dove forms the poem’s theme of accepting people for who they are through her varying tones and effective use of heart idioms. First, Dove’s individual shifts in tone help to structure the general theme of acceptance by enhancing HER perspective on the subject. To illustrate, the poem begins with a straightforward and critical tone, evident through HER judgement of the heart. With defined word choice in lines like, “It’s neither red / nor sweet” (1-2), and, “it isn’t even / shapely” (12-13), the reader can understand Dove’s condemning tone. Thus, the fault-finding tone forms the theme of the poem by describing how Dove views HER heart’s imperfections, the same imperfections that SHE wishes will not interfere with HER emotional life. Likewise, Dove’s reflective yet realistic tone shown in lines like, “[HER heart] isn’t even / shapely-- / just a thick clutch / of muscle”

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