18 pages • 36 minutes read
Rita DoveHeart to Heart
Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 2004A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Themes
The Challenge of Definition
Definition, or the speaker’s attempt to define an object (in this case, the concept of “heart”), is the core theme in “Heart to Heart,” driving the argument and lyrical arc. “Heart” is a complicated idea, and Dove’s goal in writing this poem is to explore its various definitions as they relate to the speaker. Line 1 begins, “It’s neither red / nor sweet” (Lines 1-2), immediately discrediting two common metaphorical turns of phrase. This line of thought continues, “It doesn’t melt / or turn over, / break or harden” (Lines 3-5). Following this list of what the heart is not, the speaker then deduces that if the heart is not these things, “it can’t feel / pain, / yearning, / regret” (Lines 6-9). Through the act of trying to define the heart, the speaker comments on the difference between the literal and metaphorical heart.
Line 10 begins again with another attempt at definition: “It doesn’t have / a tip to spin on, / it isn’t even / shapely” (Lines 10-13). Again, the speaker uses negation, followed by affirmative lines: “just a thick clutch / of muscle, / lopsided, / mute” (Lines 14-17). This repeated action—of using negation to define what the heart is not, followed by a description of what the heart is—creates a consistency in the poem, an expected pattern. Through this theme of definition, the speaker conveys the complexity of the topic at hand.
In fact, it is easier to define what the heart is not rather than what it is. This concept features in the second half of the poem when the speaker resignedly states, “but I can’t open it: / there’s no key” (Lines 22-23). Definition takes on a new significance here; not only is the speaker unable to define the heart, but they cannot express what is within their own heart (a heart that is, at this point, being taken figuratively despite earlier reasoning against the symbolizing perspective). The speaker cannot “tell you from / the bottom of it / how I feel” [Lines 26-28]), just as they cannot define “heart,” though they know it exists.
Love and Emotion
This theme is in the title, as having a “heart to heart” with someone is to talk of one’s feelings; ideas of love and emotion circulate throughout the poem through various images and finally fully appear within a relational context in the introduction of “you” in Line 26. The heart as a symbol is closely connected to the concept of love, an association shown from the poem’s opening: “It doesn’t melt” (Line 3), the speaker states, “or turn over, / break or harden” (Lines 4-5). These qualities and actions are the same figurative descriptions of what happens to someone’s heart when they are in—or out of—love. One’s heart melts when they experience something heartwarming (yet another heart-related figure of speech) or touching. One’s heart breaks when they are jilted or when love otherwise goes amiss. One’s heart hardens when they are hurt and become cynical or refuse to show compassion. All these descriptions relate not to the anatomical, physical heart, but to the symbolic, feeling heart, which is central to love (in its various forms).
While the physical heart might be “just a thick clutch / of muscle” (Lines 14-15), the feeling heart still “[sounds] / a dull tattoo” (Lines 19-20) of desire. However, the theme of love is complicated as the speaker cannot decipher this “I want, I want—” (Line 21) that their heart feels. There is longing in Line 21, yet in Line 8, the speaker clearly states that the heart can’t feel “yearning” (Line 8). The poem dances between these two hearts: The bodily heart that merely beats and the feeling heart that speaks but cannot be understood because the speaker has no “key” (Line 23). Through the lens of love, the poem ends unresolved as the speaker concludes the poem in resignation: “Here, / it’s all yours now— / but you’ll have / to take me, / too” (Lines 28-32). With the introduction of the “you” (Line 26) in the final lines, the speaker would like to experience love but does not know exactly how.
The Literal Heart Versus the Metaphorical Heart
Throughout the poem, the speaker moves between definitions of “heart,” namely the literal, anatomical heart and the metaphorical heart, trying to reconcile the two. However, the two models are so different as to be beyond reconciliation, and the poem ends in resignation (if not over the failed reconciliation, then over the fact that this un-reconciled heart is locked in a cage). The poem begins by trying to describe the heart physically: “It’s neither red / nor sweet. / It doesn’t melt / or turn over” (Lines 1-4). Dove plays with conventional figurative turns of phrase (clichés), but the speaker refuses these descriptions, reasoning that because the heart cannot “break or harden” (Line 5), “it can’t feel” (Line 6). However, this reasoning comes apart in Line 17 when the speaker states, “Still, / I feel it inside / its cage sounding / a dull tattoo” (Lines 17-20). The heart can feel, but the speaker is unable to decipher the “I want, I want—” (Line 21) of their heart.
“Heart to Heart” oscillates between the literal heart (“thick clutch / of muscle” [Lines 14-15]) and the metaphorical heart (“I can’t wear it / on my sleeve” [Lines 24-25]). Understanding both hearts is essential to understanding the poem’s final movement. In Line 28 the speaker says, “Here” (Line 28), as though handing their physical heart to the “you,” then states, “it’s all yours, now” (Line 29). The heart the speaker hands to the second person is both their real heart (“but you’ll have / to take me, / too” [Lines 30-32]) and the heart they cannot open, the heart that sounds “a dull tattoo: / I want, I want—” (Lines 20-21). The two hearts—much like the two hearts of the speaker and the “you”—are at odds. One beats but the language of the other is indecipherable.
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By Rita Dove
