Rita Dove: Heart

It's neither red

nor sweet.              

It doesn't melt

or turn over,

break or harden,

so it can't feel

pain,   

yearning,

regret.

It doesn't have

a tip to spin on,

it isn't even

shapely—

just a thick clutch

of muscle,

lopsided,

mute. Still,

I feel it inside

its cage sounding

a dull tattoo:

I want, I want—

but I can't open it:

there's no key.

I can't wear it

on my sleeve,

or tell you from

the bottom of it

how I feel. Here,

it's all yours, now—

but you'll have

to take me,

too.

Commentary

When reading this poem I instantly understood what it was about. Dove is simply telling us that the heart is just a "lopsided mute" that is perfect in a complex way. She then sums it up by saying if I give you my heart you have accept all of me (flaws and all). 

     In the first stanza, she begin to tell us that our heart is just an organ nothing more and nothing less. She showed us this by using phrases or symbolic matters that we use associated with our hearts, " it doesn't melt"( you make my heart melt), "it's neither red nor sweet" ( this relating to images of the heart and valentine's day). She then goes on to the tell abut the heart in literal terms, by stating that the heart is just a "lopsided muscle mute." Now this is when the poem shifts, she uses personification by saying the heart is caged in saying "I want it, I want it." She then uses another analogy and finally concludes her poem. 

This poem is classified as a free verse like most of her works. In my opinion this poem was something i could relate to.