“[i carry your heart with me(i carry it in]”

E. E. Cummings’s almost-sonnet “[i carry your heart with me(i carry it in]” is often put on lists of love poems as a clear encapsulation of the emotion inspired by romantic love. To serenade their beloved, the poem’s speaker uses imagery that expands their shared tiny world into the whole of the universe—a heightening of imagery that connotes the speaker’s great, enduring love.

First, the personal ownership of love is registered at the beginning. The possessiveness of the speaker having the beloved’s “heart” (Lines 1-2, 15) is mitigated by the word “carry” (Line 1, 15), which suggests a tender cradling. To enhance this, Cummings locates that cradling “in / my heart)” (Lines 1, 15), creating a sense of intimacy. The sense of deeply held closeness is also enhanced by the sentimental appellations, or apostrophe, the speaker uses: Words such as “my dear” (Line 3), “my darling” (Line 4), “my fate, my sweet” (Line 6), and “my world, my true” (Line 7) all speak to an ongoing, long-term relationship.

The private world implied by the shared pet names is juxtaposed with the epic scale of the speaker’s emotion. The speaker is sure enough in their love to compare its eternity to the workings of celestial objects: “it’s you are whatever a moon has always meant and whatever a sun will always sing is you” (Lines 8-9).