18 pages • 36 minutes read
Rita DoveHeart to Heart
Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 2004A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Further Reading & Resources
Related Poems
“American Smooth” by Rita Dove (2004)
As a poem about two people dancing, Dove’s “American Smooth” is comparable to “Heart to Heart,” a poem about two people discussing emotions and desires. However, “American Smooth” is a tonally positive, flowing poem and directly contrasts to “Heart to Heart,” which is written in a restricted tone of resignation. Furthermore, both poems are published in Dove’s collection American Smooth, and it would be fruitful to study two poems within the same collection.
“Movement Song” by Audre Lorde (1973)
Audre Lorde is a contemporary of Dove and describes herself as “black, lesbian, mother, warrior, poet” (“Audre Lorde.” Poetry Foundation). She is an important voice to read alongside Dove’s. “Movement Song” is a poem dealing with metaphor and abstraction, much like “Heart to Heart.” While different in structure and tone, the two poems offer many similar insights when read side-by-side.
“the mother” by Gwendolyn Brooks (1963)
Gwendolyn Brooks, while born much earlier than Dove in 1917, is an important and widely read poet of the 20th century. Brooks’s “the mother” uses several of the same literary devices as “Heart to Heart” and deals with similar themes of emotion and love.
Further Literary Resources
“The World Has to Fall Away: An Interview with Rita Dove” by William Walsh (2014)
This lengthy, personal interview gives a reader a sense of Dove’s voice and an eye into her personal life beyond her poems.
“The Poems of Rita Dove” by Arnold Rampersad (1986)
Published when Dove was in her early 30s, “The Poems of Rita Dove” is a short article analyzing her poems through the lens of Afro-American poetry, drawing on the success of other contemporary poets and writers such as Audre Lorde, Toni Morrison, and Alice Walker.
“Rita Dove’s Mother Love: Revising the Black Aesthetic through the Lens of Western Discourse” by Tracey L. Walters (2004)
In this scholarly essay, Tracey L. Walters talks about the prevailing concept of what Black art is or should be. Walters analyzes Black writers, including Dove, and asks, “can black writers draw upon Western literary traditions and culture and still adhere to a black aesthetic?” This complex essay asks and analyzes important questions regarding Dove’s collection Mother Love.
Listen to Poem
Listen to Rita Dove’s 2017 reading of her poem at The White House.
Related Titles
By Rita Dove
