[i carry your heart with me(i carry it in] by e. e. cummings

[i carry your heart with me(i carry it in]
by: E. E. Cummings

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)

I feel as though yesterday and today's posts should have been switched--as yesterday was Valentine's Day and today is President's Day, but here we are, a bit of a jumbled up mess, but here nonetheless.

I encountered this poem in college, and I am sad that I hadn't encountered it before then.  To me, this is one of those creepily beautiful love poems.  If you're giving it to someone who loves you in return, not so creepy, but if you're giving it to someone you're not sure about?  Yeah--hence the "a little creepy" vibe.

What I love most about this poem is how it makes you think about love--the one line out of place in the first stanza "i fear"--it always makes me wonder if the poet was trying to capture that sense of fear, even when the words say right after, "no fate(for you are my fate,my sweet)i want".  For love is a state of vulnerability.  It opens us up to being hurt by someone we trust the most, and I think in that sense, it's very rational for us to fear that love, even as we embrace it with everything we are.

The other thing I love about this poem is how the poet expresses how love is something that becomes a part of us.  That final line, "i carry your heart(i carry it in my heart)" expressing how when we love someone, we take that person's thoughts, feelings, joys, and sorrows as our own.  They are inseparable from our own.

I also like the idea that the other heart in this poem can stand in for anything we might love--poetry, music, art, or any other thing that inspires such.   And in that simple joy of loving something, it too, becomes a part of us in a way that is as ephemeral as we are, but also eternal, extending beyond us--

and it’s you are whatever a moon has always meant
and whatever a sun will always sing is you 

I have read somewhere that his punctuation marks mean something, but I have yet to go and find out.  Perhaps I will manage that one of these days.  All in all though, I just really love this poem and the way in which it expresses the idea of love, and I hope you find it as beautiful as I do.