“I Carry Your Heart with Me” by E. E Cummings
The poem, “I Carry Your Heart with Me” by E. E Cummings sheds light on the depth of love between two people. This imagist poem begins with a declaration. The speaker claims that he carries his beloved’s heart with him; he holds it in his heart and never goes anywhere without her. The speaker seems so absorbed in love that he considers her beloved the center of life. He adds that his significant other is the source of his living and the thought of losing her makes his heart skip a beat. Therefore, he carries her heart with him all the time.
Ironically, everything in his life is imbued with his unidentified lover’s presence, and this strong affiliation enables him to understand the previously meaningless elements like moon and sun. He further says that people may not understand his lover’s perpetual presence within the speaker’s heart. To him, only the people who have tasted the fruits of true love can better understand the depth of his simple words.
Major Themes
This short yet meaningful poem displays universal thematic strands such as infinite love, fear of being apart, and sentiments of a lover. The speaker is deeply in love with his beloved, and this strong connection allows him to carry his beloved heart within his heart. The writer tries to depict an intimate and strong romantic relationship throughout the text to show how it transcends individuality. In the world of the poem, infinite love touches a sense of unity.
The speaker’s lasting relationship with his significant other has provided deeper meanings to the other incomprehensible parts of life, including the elements of the natural world such as the moon and sun. In simple words, being in love make the speaker feels special; it makes him capable of living a life full of affection and intimation. The sacred feeling of love and togetherness even sheds his fear of separation.
Analysis of Poetic and Literary Elements Used in “I Carry Your Heart with Me”
E Cummings has touched various hearts worldwide by depicting love as a powerful feeling in this beautiful poem. Although the subject matter of the poem is simple, yet he has cleverly inserted various poetic elements to enhance the power of love. The analysis of the devices used in the poem is as follows.
Literary Elements
1. Alliteration: Alliteration is a poetic technique that shows a series of words in a sentence displaying the first consonant sound like “t” in “this is the wonder that’s.”
2. Anaphora: Anaphora is a figure of speech in which words are repeated at the beginning of successive verses, clauses, phrases, and sentences. Cummings repeated words “no” and “and” in the second stanza of the poem to convey his ideas impressively, such as;
3. Imagery: It is a poetic technique that makes the use of visually descriptive language to create images in readers’ mind. The poem displays the use of imagery such as; “here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud” and “and the sky of the sky of a tree called life;”
4. Metaphor: It is another striking figure of speech that details the words or action in a way that is not true but helps make an implied comparison. Cumming has used love as an extended metaphor of love to show how it strengthens a person and makes him feel special.
5. Symbols: Symbolism is using symbols to represent ideas or qualities. The poem shows various symbols like happiness, joy, togetherness, and romance.
Poetic Elements
- Quatrain: A quatrain refers to a four-lined stanza borrowed from Persian poetry. Cumming has used two quatrains in this poem such as;
2. Stanza: A stanza refers to a group of lines constructing the basic metrical unit in a poetic piece. There are three stanzas in the poem, and each varies in length.
See Also:
“We Wear the Mask” by Paul Lawrence Dunbar – Analysis
