i carry your heart 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 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)

Today's  poem is by E.E. Cummings, famous for his idiosyncratic syntax and love poems.  Cummings is a little difficult to grasp when you first read him.  His writing style holds meaning though, it's not written for flash alone, but to convey new meaning and modify the topic of the poem.  The topic, like many of Cummings is love.  As this poem doesn't follow normal stanza patterns we'll analyze it line by line. 

line I: i carry your heart with me (i carry it in

 Line one starts with a sentence.  In classic Cummings fashion there are neither capitalization nor periods throughout the work.  There's the vague feeling that none of these things are important. Stripping down the writing to the barest essentials, conveys the importance of the matter at hand. The paradox is that his style is deliberate well-practiced craftsmanship.  It's a unification of style and substance. The second part of line one and the beginning of line two  are bracketed. This lets us know that Cummings is speaking in an aside, Shakespearean style.  (Cummings was a great practitioner of the Sonnet form as well by the way)  The bracketed part breaks on I carry it in, which gives an impression that he's carrying his lover in some place.  The second part lets us know it's to my heart that he's carrying her.  This also serves as a sort of loose repetition of meaning, reinforcing the sincerity of his desire for the beloved.

line II: my heart) i am never without it (anywhere

The unbracketed part of the second line is both literal and figurative in it's truth, a double meaning.    He's obviously never without his beating heart, nor is he without thought of his love.  The second bracketed point emphasizes that it's with him anywhere.  

line III: i go you go, my dear; and whatever is done

 line IV:  by only me is your doing, my darling)

 Line three begins and ends with the enjambment from anywhere into line four.  The emphasis from line two is that all places are the same when she's in his heart.  Line II-IV convey in a figurative sense that he does the things they do together when they're apart from one another.  He has her on his mind.

There is also a subtle mastubatory gesture within the lines, speaking of whatever a lover would do together that he does alone would be her doing.
 
line V:  i fear

I fear is deliberate in it's rhythmic break.  Here Cummings preps us for the worst.  Let's see what comes next. 

line VI:   no fate (for you are my fate, my sweet) i want

Line six turns the i fear from line five into a gesture of fearlessness.  The aside turns on fate with an attributing his fearlessness to the understanding that she is his fate.  Coupled with an endearing my sweet.  I want begins the enjambment for the next line, this creates a complex staccato rhythm between the lines.  These consist of two one syllable words that are inverted by asides.  

line VII:  no world (for beautiful you are my world, my true)

  I want no world is fully figurative and ends the sixth and seventh line enjambment.  Obviously he wants her in his world.  While the bracketed part continues on in haste to explain that she is his world and his truth.  This bracketed part repeats the rhythmic pattern with an endearing term. 

line VIII:   and it’s you are whatever a moon has always meant

  Here Cummings takes a break from brackets and continues on with a change in rhythmic patters set in the brackets above.  He fits a massive thirteen syllables into one line, leading the reader to speed up their reading to  keep the rhythm of the whole complete.

line IX:  and whatever a sun will always sing is you

Here there's a simple repetition in the line of and and whatever as in the line before it cements a mini couplet with a juxtaposition of the words sun and moon.  Cummings uses direct metaphor you are instead of simile in order to create a stronger impression of desire.  Again Cummings creates a union of style and substance that's almost explicit in his attributions of what the sun and moon do, which is song and meaning. 

line X:  here is the deepest secret nobody knows

 Line ten is a build up.  It's another rhythmic change adding accent and expression to the line in order to create the impression that someone is about to intimate something cherished and secret.

line XI:  (here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud

Lines eleven through thirteen form yet another an enjambment.  the brackets and foreshadowing of line ten aid in accelerating the tempo of the reading.  Line eleven is a repetition of calling things what they are.  This is a subtle juxtaposition between this bracketed portion, and lines eight and nine which a direct metaphors.  He repeats root, bud and sky, creating an encompassing impression of everything that can be seen from under the earth to the sky. 

line XII:  and the sky of the sky of a tree called life; which grows

 The explanation of the secret is that all these things makes up a tree called life.  There's a subtle phalic reference with the tree which is natural in a love poem like this.  It should be noted that Cummings had never made a habit of shying away from the topic of the erotic in prior poetry. 

line XIII:  higher than the soul can hope or mind can hide)

 This line brings us back to the subject of the aside which is a secret.  The narrator discloses that this secret could never be hidden.  Mind and soul are somewhat tritely connected, but the poem invigorates the pair with new meaning, intimating that his love is a secret that he cannot keep.

line XIV:  and this is the wonder that’s keeping the stars apart

 Here the second to last line slows the tempo, a denouement before the crescendo which takes place at the end.  The line continues the  ascent from root to stars.  This climbing also entails an ascent from the physical nature to the celestial, a hint on the process of transmuting physical attraction into classical fated love. 

line XV:  i carry your heart (i carry it in my heart)

The poem ends with a variation on the first two lines.  It omits the words with me from line one , and continues the bracketed portion of  line one and two. This enhances the urgency and cohesion of the beginning lines.  Instead of something the narrator carries with him, it has become a part of him.  Where the bracketed part occurred over two lines, it now occupies a single line.  Two have become one at the end.