Eva Ratnawati, an English teacher from Pasuruan, East Java, Indonesia, analyzes a nonsense verse poem entitling The Broken Heart. She comments that the poem is not appropriate for junior high school level because it applies so many difficult words, even the Old English, such as THEE and THINE.
THE BROKEN HEART
By: John Donne
He is stark mad, whoever says,
That the 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 swear
That 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, 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 a room,
But from the room I carried none with me.
If it had gone to thee, I know
Mine 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 show
A hundred lesser faces, so
My rags of heart can like, wish, and adore,
But after one such love, can Love no more.
1. John Donne
John Donne was born in London to a prominent Roman Catholic family but converted to Anglicanism during the 1590s. Donne’s prose, almost equally metaphysical, ranks at least as high as of biblical passages and for their intense explorations of the themes of divine love and of the decay and resurrection of the body. Devotion of upon Emergent Occasions (1624) is a powerful series of meditations, expostulations, and prayers in which Donne’s serious sickness at the time becomes a microcosm wherein can be observed the stages of the world’s spiritual disease. Obsessed with the idea of death, Donne preached what was called his own funeral sermon, “Death’s Duel” just a few weeks before he died in London on March 31, 1631.
2. Poetic Devices
a. Rhyme: A-B-A-B-C-C-D-D
b. Rhythm: This poem consists of four stanzas, each stanza consists of eight lines which is called octameter.
c. Stanza form: Each stanza consists of eight lines, it is called Octave or Octet.
d. Alliteration: It can be seen in the following lines.
Stanza 1:
That he hath been in love an hour,
Yet not that love so soon decays,
Who will believe me, if I swear
That I have had the plague a year?
Who would not laugh at me, if I should say
Stanza 2:
They come to us, but us love draws;
By him, as by chain’d shot, whole ranks do die;
Stanza 3:
Mine would have taught thine heart to show
Stanza 4:
Those pieces still, though they be not unite;
But after one such love, can love no more.
e. Onomatopoeia: At stanza 3 line 7.
More pity unto me; but Love, alas!
The word ALAS means that the writer expresses his deepest disappointment and grief.
f. Simile:
Stanza 2 line 7: By him, as by chain’d shot, whole ranks do die;
Stanza 3 line 8: At one first blow did shiver it as a glass.
Stanza 4 line 5: And now, as broken glasses show.
3. Poetic Diction
a. Connotation meaning:
Stanza 1 line 8: ...a flash of powder...
Stanza 2 line 8: ...the tyrant pike...
Stanza 3 line 3: ...the room,
Stanza 4 line 6: A hundred lesser faces, so
b. Imagery:
John Donne’s poem “The Broken Heart” is full of imagery, used to portray his broken heart. He uses the imagery so the reader can get a visual picture of what love means to him. He uses the imagery because it’s necessary to see a picture of the pain he lives with. He uses several aspects of imagery, including death to show his pain. He feels that the love is the destroyer of his heart.
4. Content:
a. Theme: sadness
b. Message: be careful with love. It may be so sweet and quite bitter also.
5. Point if view: the poet, John Donne wrote “The Broken Heart” to declare that man who claims to have loved for an hour is insane. The man is insane, not because love “decays”, but because love “devours”.
6. Symbol:
Glass: something that easily broken
Glasses: an equipment which helps someone to see something clearly
7. Comment: this poem is not appropriate for junior high school level because it applies so many difficult words, even the Old English, such as THEE and THINE.
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