The Broken Heart

He is stark mad, whoever says, That he hath been in love an hour,Yet not that love so soon decays, But that it can ten in less space devour ;Who will believe me, if I swearThat I have had the plague a year? Who would not laugh at me, if I should say I saw a flash of powder burn a day?Ah, what a trifle is a heart, If once into love's hands it come !All other griefs allow a part To other griefs, and ask themselves but some ;They come to us, but us love draws ;He swallows us and never chaws ; By him, as by chain'd shot, whole ranks do die ; He is the tyrant pike, our hearts the fry.If 'twere not so, what did become Of my heart when I first saw thee?I brought a heart into the room, But from the room I carried none with me.If it had gone to thee, I knowMine would have taught thine heart to show More pity unto me ; but Love, alas ! At one first blow did shiver it as glass.Yet nothing can to nothing fall, Nor any place be empty quite ;Therefore I think my breast hath all Those pieces still, though they be not unite ;And now, as broken glasses showA hundred lesser faces, so My rags of heart can like, wish, and adore, But after one such love, can love no more.


In “The Broken Heart” by John Donne his use of metaphors and structure help in developing the poem to become not only a warning to all those who read it about love but also a story of when he had his heart broken and the feelings that came along with it. Metaphors go a long way and help in expressing the torture love brings the heart, and well as what it leaves behind afterwards. The structure is used to tell the story of the poem. Donne also uses structure as a tool, as in each stanza looks at this main idea that love destroys the heart from a different angle in each.
In the first stanza Donne seems to be explaining how he feels about love. He uses metaphors to express how painful it can be and how quickly any heart that feels love can be “devoured”. He feels that it is insane for anyone to feel love for longer than an hour because ten hearts can be broken in that long of a time. He compares this to how crazy it would be for someone to have the plague for a year, which of course they would die from in less time than that.
In the second stanza Donne is very aggressive towards love and personifies it as some kind of monster. He saws while speaking of love, “he swallows us and never chaws” basically expressing that love never spits you out only swallows you whole. Next he compares love to a “chain’d shot” saying similar to this love kills many people’s hearts at once. Overall in this stanza metaphors personify love as something to be afraid of.
In the third stanza Donne is speaking to his ex-lover and the mood changes from aggressive to sad, and he sounds almost full of sorrow as he compares his heart to glass. He clearly wants pity as this is what he wishes his heart could have taught his lover, to pity him, and be more careful with his fragile heart of glass.
In the end Donne knows his heart is where it always has been but uses the metaphor of glass once more to suggest his heart has been shattered, “and now, as broken glasses show a hundred lesser faces”. His use of the metaphor is to express the idea that his heart similar to a broken mirror instead of being able to do what it was made for can now only do multiple little things. And “after one such love, can love no more”.
“The Broken Heart” is a wonderful example of Donne’s metaphysical poetry, as he expresses his feelings about love through elaborate metaphors such as comparing the heart to glass, that’s easily shattered, just like his heart. Structure plays an important role in expounding on this idea from different angles. Overall creating a brilliant poem and clearly expressing the idea that love destroys the heart.