“The Broken Heart”: John Donne; poem and analysis

“The Broken Heart”: John Donne; poem and analysis.

The Broken Heart is a metaphysical love poem by the English writer John Donne (1572-1631), published in the 1633 anthology: Poems.

The Broken Heart, one of John Donne’s most notable poems, declares that any man who believes he has loved for an hour is crazy, not because love can degrade in such a short time but because in that period love is capable of devouring the anyone’s heart.

In other words: love is indestructible but perfectly capable of destroying lovers.

In this bleak context posed by John Donne, all hearts are broken hearts.

The Broken Heart is an excellent example of the metaphysical style of John Donnewhich allows him to transform a relatively simple concept (that love destroys the loving heart) into an elaborate meditation filled with lush images.

John Donne speculates that the heart is an inadequate vehicle for love, or rather, an inefficient one. Love overflows it, surpasses it, breaks it. This concept is very interesting: the heart does not break in disappointment, in the breakup of a relationship, but during the peak of love at its maximum expression.

However, even though the heart seems to fail in trying to retain love without destroying itself, it persists like a broken mirror, reflecting secondary emotions such as hope and pain, although no longer able to experience the same burning feeling again.

The broken heart.
The Broken Heart, John Donne (1572-1631)

Crazy is he who claims
having been in love for an hour,
but it’s not that love fades like that,
but, in fact, in less time it can devour you.
Who will dare believe me if I swear
have suffered a year from this plague?
Who wouldn’t laugh at me if I said
that I saw the gunpowder in a jar burn all day?

Read Also: "When the still voices die": Percy Bysshe Shelley; poem and analysis

Oh, how insignificant the heart,
if it falls into the hands of love!
Any other regret leaves room
to other sorrows, and claims only a part for himself.
They come to us, but Love drags us,
and, without chewing, it absorbs us.
By him, as by the infamous iron, entire troops fall.
He is the tyrant sturgeon; our hearts, the trash.

If not, what happened?
to my heart when I saw you?
I brought a heart to the bedroom,
but from it I emerged empty, desolate.
If I had gone with you, I know
that mine would have taught your heart
the compassion.
But, alas, Love, from a lacerating wound happiness
has been broken.

But Nothing can become Nothing,
nor can any place be completely empty,
So, I think that he still has my chest all
those fragments, even if they are not reunited.
And now, as the broken mirrors show
hundreds of smaller faces, like this
the pieces of my heart can feel pleasure,
desire and adoration,
but after such Love, they will never love again.

He is stark mad, whoever says,
That he has been in love an hour,
Yet not that love so soon decays,
But that it can have in less space devour;
Who will believe me, if I swear
That I have had the plague a year?
Who wouldn’t 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 comes!
All other griefs allow a part
To other griefs, and ask themselves but some;
They come to us, but we 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.

Read Also: "The dark swallows will return": Gustavo Adolfo Becquer; poem and analysis

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 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, although they are not united;
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.

John Donne (1572-1631)

Gothic poems. I Poems of John Donne.

More gothic literature:

The analysis, summary and translation into Spanish of the poem by John Donne: The Broken Heart, were made by . For reproduction, write to us at