‘Joyas Voladores’ – Brian Doyle
I thought this was a superb piece of writing. Doyle’s description of the hummingbird’s engaging and well-written. In the first paragraph, after the opening sentence, he starts three short sentences with the phrase ‘A hummingbird’s heart is...’ – a technique called anaphora. He then finishes the paragraph with one very long sentence full of vivid verbs – “whirring...zooming...nectaring...hammering.” He uses anaphora at the start of the second paragraph too – “They can...” and the long list of the exotic and mysterious names of different types of hummingbirds adds an element of what is almost poetry to the essay. He then goes ...
