i carry your heart with me by E.E. Cummings | Poems Rethabile Likes
"i carry your heart with me"
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i carry your heart with me(i carry it in
my heart)i am never without it(anywhere
i go you go,my dear;and whatever is done
by only me is your doing,my darling)
i fear
no fate(for you are my fate,my sweet)i want
no world(for beautiful you are my world,my true)
and it's you are whatever a moon has always meant
and whatever a sun will always sing is you
here is the deepest secret nobody knows
(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud
and the sky of the sky of a tree called life;which grows
higher than soul can hope or mind can hide)
and this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart
i carry your heart(i carry it in my heart)
E. E. Cummings's “i carry your heart with me” is one of the best-loved love poems in the English language. Written in Cummings's unmistakable style—with lowercase letters, unusual punctuation, and intimate, rhythm—it captures something both simple and difficult to put into words: the feeling of being deeply, completely connected to someone.
The poem's structure reflects that idea of connection. The heart is carried within another heart; the boundaries between “you” and “I” begin to disappear. The poem moves from the deeply personal—“i carry your heart with me”—to the cosmic—“you are whatever a moon has always meant”—and finally to the almost spiritual image of “the root of the root and the bud of the bud.” When it returns to its opening words at the end, the poem feels almost circular, as if this love has no beginning or end.
Cummings wrote the poem during his relationship with Marion Morehouse, who became his longtime partner, though the familiar claim that it was written specifically “for his wife” is more complicated than it is sometimes presented. Over the years, the poem has found its way into weddings, memorials, and countless personal moments. Its appeal is easy to understand: it manages to make love feel at once intimate, mysterious, and enormous.
A long time ago, while a student at Maryville College in Tennessee, USA, I read his biography or autobiography, if the latter exists. The phrase "Oh, my little birdie, Oh / With his little toe, toe, toe!" was cited as the first verse he ever wrote, composed at the age of three! The first time I read it I actually saw that little bird hopping. And then every time after that.
But it is now time to listen to Cummings himself read 'i carry your heart with me'. His voice is calm and measured, giving the poem another dimension that differs from the one we might hear silently in our hearts.
— Rethabile
E.E. Cummings reading "i carry your heart with me"
In this video, E.E. Cummings reads his poem "i carry your heart with me," a tender love poem about devotion and connection.
Video source: YouTube. Duration approximately 2 minutes.
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