Classic and Contemporary Poetry: Explained

In Robert Pinsky's "The Hearts," the human heart is examined as both a metaphorical and literal force, a muscle pulsing with the complexities of desire, pain, and ambition. Through a dizzying array of references that range from Art Pepper (American jazz alto saxophonist and clarinetist (1925-1982) to Shakespeare to Buddha, Pinsky explores the contradictory nature of the human heart, a place where joy and pain intersect, a space that Buddhism suggests we should abandon but that our experience insists we inhabit. At its core, the poem looks at how the heart's attachments are both our glory and our downfall.

The poem opens with an evocative image of the heart as "the legendary muscle that wants and grieves," setting the stage for an exploration of desire and pain. Pinsky uses the simile of "pulpy shore-life battened on a jetty" to describe the heart's attachments, its tenacity and resilience, even in the face of life's "little deaths." We are shown that attachment is at once the heart's raison d'être and its perpetual suffering. From this image of the heart clinging onto life, even in moments of death, Pinsky moves us through several instances in which the idea of attachment is examined.

The historical, mythological, and cultural references are crucial in rendering the multi-faceted image of the heart. For instance, in referencing Art Pepper's first experience with heroin, Pinsky encapsulates the heart's relentless tendency to chase desires, even when it knows they will lead to suffering. Similarly, Antony, the great General who loses the world for love, and his advisor Enobarbus, offer a contradictory view: the tragedy of losing everything for love is also a "wonderful piece of work," an experience so monumental that it validates the loss.

A mention of Shakespeare serves as a vehicle to address not just romantic love but also the power of poetic expression. This is a wry nod to the process of poetic creation, which seeks to immortalize emotions, thus making "crystals" out of the evanescent "teardrops." Yet, Shakespeare himself is neutered by a scholar who suggests his sonnets offer no conclusive evidence of his sexual orientation, reminding us of the futility of attempting to rigidly define or categorize the impulses of the heart.

The Buddha is invoked as a counterpoint to these emotional complexities. In the Buddhist view, the heart and its desires lead to a cycle of pain and illusion. Yet, Pinsky contrasts this ascetic perspective with a far more humanist view through the lens of pop culture. We see Lee Andrews and The Hearts, a doo-wop group, singing about the illusions we foster. This highlights that even in the face of pain, we continue to live in and through our illusions because they make us who we are.

The mention of Art Pepper serves as a poignant metaphor for the complexities of human desire and the heart's tendency to want what it knows will lead to suffering. The reference encapsulates the simultaneous glory and tragedy of human attachment, making Pepper's life story a fitting inclusion in a poem that delves into the intricacies of the human heart.

Pinsky then extends the metaphor of cycles, employing the image of a potter in Benares and a Temple in Jerusalem. These cycles, whether of mud cups or of visions, are viewed as transient but inevitable. They exist, like the heart's wants, as momentary clouds that "break and churn a salt foam over the heart."

As a crescendo, the poem culminates in the image of a record ending, moving "through all the music, and on into silence again," echoing the cycles of the heart's glory and suffering. "The Hearts" serves as a rich tapestry that considers the heart as a source of strength and vulnerability, a muscle that simultaneously uplifts and weighs down. It is a complex meditation on the essence of human experience, linking the visceral to the intellectual, the secular to the divine, and the ephemeral to the eternal.

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