Sunday Scribblings: "I Carry"

When I saw the prompt, the first thing I thought of was this poem by e.e. cummings. It’s one of the first poems I remember reading by him—I think I was about 18. With its awkward phrasing and use of repetition, it moves me every time.


As I look at the first line, with no space between the word “me” and beginning parens, I notice there’s no space around any punctuation mark. It’s pleasantly odd because the parentheses sets off a digression of thought, but really that’s the meat of the poem. It represents a sort-of symbiotic relationship, or dependency, between what is inside and what is outside, as well these two people—albeit, one sided. We really don’t know if the love is requited. We just have a sense that this passion flows like blood from one romantic soul to another.

(I can't get blogger to tab correctly, so "i fear" in the first stanza should be right justified.)

Did I mention that this poem is a sonnet?


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 the 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



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