17 pages • 34 minutes read
E. E. Cummings“[i carry your heart with me(i carry it in]”
Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 2014A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Symbols & Motifs
The Multiplicity of the Heart
The human heart powers the body, pumping blood throughout it. By noting that “i carry your heart with me(i carry it in / my heart)i am never without it(anywhere” (Lines 1-2), the speaker implies several things at once. First, the speaker is always thinking of their lover, so much so that the thoughts become visceral and are held within their body. This suggests an emotional closeness and necessity to the relationship. Second, the speaker explains that what the lover has given them is part of what shapes them, and they are “never without it(anywhere” (Line 2). This shows the influence of the beloved upon the speaker. Finally, hearts are symbolic of love and passion—a connection made throughout the history of literature. As the speaker talks about the way they feel about their beloved, they note that the heart contains the whole world, and transcends it—a heightened image of the expansiveness of their love.
The Tree of Life
E. E. Cummings’s speaker notes that their deep love 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” (Lines 11-13). The tree of life is a common symbol in many cultures, usually indicating ancestral roots and/or a branching towards divinity. It is also connected to the tree of knowledge in the Bible’s Book of Genesis, where Adam and Eve partake of the fruit of this tree and are banished from Eden. In Norse mythology, the tree that supports existence is Yggdrasill, the tree of death and life. Many other mythologies also conceptualize a tree as the vertical center of the world.
In the poem, the tree is a potent symbol. Its roots show its determination to ground itself, while its crown soars above the most elevated of individual aspects, such as the soul or the mind. This tree is representative of the idea that everything is connected, all descending from a common thread. Cummings uses the symbol to suggest that love is the unifying theme of life and always has been, across time and culture. Thus, the speaker’s love is eternal and expansive, both going down to the “root” (Line 11) and reaching up into the “sky” (Line 13).
Celestial Objects
To fully indicate that the love of the speaker is both personal and epic, the speaker uses the motif of celestial objects. The beloved’s connection to the speaker is revealed at first as very personal, with the speaker carrying around the idea of the beloved and using it to determine their actions. However, the speaker soon merges this with an idea of a greater, spiritual love by using the imagery of the solar system. The speaker notes, “and it’s you are whatever a moon has always meant / and whatever a sun will always sing is you” (Lines 12-13). Further on, the speaker notes that the pair’s shared love is “the wonder that’s keeping the stars apart” (Line 14). The comparisons draw on the use of these celestial bodies throughout the history of literature as symbols of eternity, predictability, and necessity.
The motions of the moon and the sun are taken as a given in both heliocentric and geocentric conceptions of the universe; their existence is hyperbolically described as infinite. Here, the poem links the love the speaker feels to the “always” of the moon and sun. Similarly, the fact that the stars do not collide with one another but maintain balance is an image of immensely powerful forces. By defining these forces as love, the poem shows its awe-inspiring and inevitable expansiveness.
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By E. E. Cummings
