The Heart

Poet Michael Symmons Roberts explores the myriad metaphors that we use to describe the character of the human heart.

"The heart, for all its messy truth as a bruise-coloured loosely fist-shaped pump, has been transformed into one of the most potent metaphors in our culture," he says as he reflects on its ubiquitous presence as a "stylised cordate shape with two smooth curves at the top and a point at the base".

But, of course, it is so much more than that, as it is described as the home of so many of our emotions good and bad, and the seat of loyalty, commitment and love. Michael explains that he "can't help but associate it with longing, with yearning. ...because after all yearning, stirring, longing, well... that's what hearts do".

With poetry from John Donne, Rita Dove and EE Cummings, and the music of Beethoven, Handel and the Ink Spots, Michael reflects on what it means to learn "by heart" and the power of a beating heart as a continual reminder of the physical and the incarnational. He concludes that "whether it's concerned with our relationships with each other or with God, the metaphor of the heart is inescapable".

Presenter: Michael Symmons Roberts
Producer: Michael Wakelin
A TBI Media production for BBC Radio 4.