Ebb

In “Ebb,” the heart symbolizes love, and the death of love adversely impacts the speaker's love, or, her heart. It’s as if the speaker’s ability to love depended on receiving love from her partner. Now that her partner’s love is gone, the speaker loses her capacity to love. Instead, she’s become “hollow” (Line 3), “little” (Lines 4 and 6), and dry. Her heart is not a terrain where love can grow. In “Ebb,” the heart represents the speaker’s state, which connects to love; without love, the speaker finds herself in a desolate, barren condition.

The heart can also symbolize an all-consuming force. The speaker doesn’t say, “I know what I’ve been like / Since your love died.” No, she states, “I know what my heart is like / Since your love died” (Lines 1-2). The speaker is talking about a specific part of her body. Yet this single part has a powerful impact on the rest of her, as if the speaker’s identity and heart are inseparable. What happens to her heart happens to her, therefore, the speaker’s diminished heart diminishes her entire being.