Published in 2004, Rita Dove’s “Heart to Heart” is a poem seeking to define the heart. Oscillating between the physical and the metaphorical, the literal and the abstract, the poem explores common conceptions about the heart using cliché and seeks to establish the truth about what it means to feel, love, and intimately connect with someone.

Written in Dove’s mid-career, “Heart to Heart” uses a short, abrupt lines to explore the complicated concept of the heart. A conflicted speaker presents multiple tonal shifts and uses literary devices such as repetition and figurative diction, finally concluding to offer their heart—and self—to another.

Poet Biography

Rita Dove was born and raised in Akron, Ohio, in 1952. Because her father was a chemist, education was highly valued in the Dove household, and Dove was encouraged to read widely. An excellent student, Dove received many honors in secondary school, including being named a Presidential Scholar and one of the top 100 graduates in the country. Dove received her undergraduate degree from Miami University in Ohio. Following graduation, she attained a Fulbright at the University of Tübingen in West Germany, then returned to the United States and earned her Master of Fine Arts at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. As of 2022, Dove is a professor of English at the University of Virginia.

Dove’s poetry, often described by critics as personal and historical, revisits the past and brings history to light, particularly forgotten or overlooked moments in Black American history. Her first poetry collection, The Yellow House on the Corner (1980), immediately received immense praise upon publication. In this first collection, Dove established a style that she has carried forward and developed throughout her career. The style is described for its “sense of history combined with individual detail” (“Rita Dove.” Poetry Foundation). Dove’s works have received countless honors, including a Pulitzer Prize for her verse-novel Thomas and Beulah (1986). A finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award and a winner of the NAACP Image Award and the 2017 Library of Virginia Award for her Collected Poems: 1974-2004, Dove has also received the immense honor of being a finalist for the National Book Award.

A prolific writer, Dove is much more than a celebrated and decorated poet. She has published a story collection (Fifth Sunday [1985]) and a novel (Through the Ivory Gate [1992]). She is also a playwright whose play, The Darker Face of the Earth (1994), was produced and performed in Washington, D.C. In 1993, at 40 years old, Dove was named the US Poet Laureate. This prestigious honor had never been given to a younger poet at the time, and Dove was also the first African American to receive this honor. As an advocate, Dove is a key voice in American poetry and art. Regarding her placement as US Poet Laureate, Dove stated that it was “significant in terms of the message it sends about the diversity of our culture and our literature” (“Rita Dove.” Poetry Foundation).

Poem Text

Dove, Rita. “Heart to Heart.” 2004. Poetry Foundation.

Summary

“Heart to Heart” is a study of the physical heart (the organ) contrasted with the metaphorical heart (that of feeling), opening with the speaker trying to define and describe the heart. Through the language of negation, the speaker claims what the heart is not: “It’s neither red / nor sweet” (Lines 1-2). The first stanza is a catalogue of refuted clichés and figures of speech: sweethearts (Line 2), hearts melting (Line 3), heartbreak (Line 5). These turns of phrase, the speaker says, are inaccurate.

The second stanza continues in this vein before turning to what the heart is, on a literal level: The speaker says the heart is “just a thick clutch / of muscle, / lopsided, / mute” (Lines 14-17). Then, however, the speaker turns to their own metaphorical language, saying that they feel their own heart pounding in their chest, in a “cage” (Line 19), as though it is chanting, “I want, I want” (Line 21). The speaker extends the cage metaphor, lamenting that they have no “key” (Line 23) and cannot open it, cannot access, understand, or express their emotions.

As the speaker emphasizes the futility of this communication, the poem carries on its privative diction and description, still using clichés to define what the heart is not or cannot offer: “I can’t wear it / on my sleeve” (Lines 24-25), “or tell you from / the bottom of it / how I feel” (Lines 26-28). As though in resignation, final lines state, “Here, / it’s all yours, now— / but you’ll have / to take me, / too” (Lines 28-32).