Ballad for a Pierced Heart

The heart symbol is an ideograph used to express the idea of the "heart" in its metaphorical or symbolic sense. The symbol is a symmetrical shape consisting of "two similar curves meeting in a point at one end and a cusp at the other," not an anatomically correct representation of a heart. Often colored red, the heart symbol denotes the center of emotion, including affection and love, especially romantic love. While ancient antecedents may exist, this shape for the heart became fixed in Europe in the Middle Ages. It is sometimes accompanied or superseded by a "wounded heart" symbol, depicted as a heart symbol pierced with an arrow, indicating lovesickness, or as a "broken" heart symbol in two or more pieces, indicating heartbreak.