Preserving the Vitality of Love: Analyzing "I Am Trying to Break Your Heart" Anonymous 12th Grade

Almost everyone, at some point in their life, deals with heartbreak and loneliness from a broken relationship. In “I Am Trying to Break Your Heart,” Kevin Young utilizes literary devices to depict the cruelty of a past relationship. The poem successfully demonstrates the speaker’s story of love and loneliness, illustrating the inner turmoil one faces after the deterioration of a relationship. Young employs a metaphor of taxidermy, a cruel tone, and contradictions to highlight his desire to preserve the joy and vitality of a past love. Young uses the literary device of metaphor to illuminate the speaker’s pain and yearning to hold on to his lover and the love they once shared.

Within the poem, the speaker places himself in the shoes of a taxidermist: “I am hoping/ to hang your head/ on my wall,” (1-3), “the slightest taxidermy/ thrills me” (5-6), “and break/ your heart like a horse/ or its leg,” (14-16). A taxidermist practices the art of preparing, stuffing, and mounting the skins of animals. By connecting himself to one, the speaker uses a metaphor to symbolize the pain of his fleeting relationship. Furthermore, he is metaphorically inflicting this pain on his lover, similar to the practices of a taxidermist. The speaker’s...