In the poem “Secretly I am building in the heart” by Julia Alvarez, the speaker attempts to rebuild a structure made out of love, the idea of which is emphasized through ambiguity, endurance, and maintenance. With the use of vague diction, clear metaphors, and reflection, the speaker further denotes the significance of love.
Using ambiguous wording, the speaker presents love as something universal rather than limited to one person or object. This idea is conveyed in the final line, “I’ve / labored with my heart to outlast the heart / with this thing I’m creating out of love.” The speaker stresses the emotional labor behind the structure by “labor[ing] with [their heart],” but they never define what the creation actually is. Through referring to the structure as a “…thing,” and not specifying the shape it’s taking, this ambiguity allows the structure to represent any form of love. Also, the speaker’s desire to create something “…to outlast the heart” shows that love is expected to live longer than the heart but it’s not specified how. With the word “heart,” something that is associated with emotion, the speaker suggests that love is meant to exist past emotional impulse. By leaving this object of love indeterminate, the speaker suggests that love itself is not bound to a single purpose but can be applied wherever.
The speaker’s actions then reveal how much they value love, shown through the metaphor of building “…card houses or Popsicle palaces / kids build.” Cardhouses and Popsicle places are known to be frail, and the speaker conveys the fragility of the creation by relating their structure to those easily destroyed ones. Yet though this structure is delicate, the speaker has the persistence required to build it carefully. By “…patiently piecing each part together,” the speaker highlights the time, effort, and focus invested in the structure, emphasizing that love is worth lots of labor despite its delicacy. Furthermore, the speaker admits that this process “…takes so much time,” reinforcing that building this is not a casual or effortless project. Also, the speaker works with the “…ruins from an earlier effort,” continuing to rebuild it rather than quitting and abandoning the structure altogether. The perseverance in these actions demonstrates that love has great importance to the speaker.
Not only is love important, but the speaker also points out that love requires continuous maintenance. This is shown in the lines, “[A] new thing I am making that takes so much time / to finish if there’s finish in these things,” where the speaker reflects on the task and questions love’s finitude. By doubting “…if there’s finish in these things,” the speaker wonders whether there even is an end. Alongside thinking about a “readymade” alternative, the speaker questions whether the act of building love is worth the effort. However, in the last two lines, they then accept love as an ongoing process that demands consistent labor and care. The structure the speaker builds is not infinite because it’s unbreakable, but because it must be continually tended to. The speaker implies that love’s stability lies in its need for persistent nurture.
In “Secretly I am building in the heart,” love is described as an enduring object that requires care and precision. Through the speaker’s word choice, metaphors, and reflection, love is illustrated as a universal resource that continues to grow.