The poem “I Carry Your Heart With Me” by EE Cummings has been a popular love poem and wedding choice for many years. The poem has sparked renewed interest since being featured in the film In Her Shoes. It is used to devastating effect in the film’s climax wedding scene and again at the conclusion of the film. Countless fans have been inspired to review the touching words of “I carry your heart with me”.
the poet
EE Cummings was born Edward Estlin Cummings in 1894 in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He died in North Conway, NH in 1962. Cummings earned a BA from Harvard in 1915 and delivered that year’s commencement address entitled “The New Art.” A year later, he earned an MA in English and Classics, also from Harvard.
Cummings joined an American Red Cross Ambulance Corps in France during World War I. The French jailed him on suspicion of disloyalty, a false charge that landed Cummings in prison for three months. He wrote the novel the huge room, about his experience. Much of Cummings’ writing has an anti-war message.
Cummings was a visual artist, playwright and novelist. After World War I, he studied art in Paris and adopted a cubist style in his artwork. Considering himself a painter as well as a poet, he spent much of the day painting and much of the night writing. Cummings particularly admired the artworks of Pablo Picasso. Cumming’s understanding of presentation is evident in his use of typography to ‘paint a picture’ with words in some of his poems.
During his lifetime Cummings wrote over 900 poems, two novels, four plays and had at least half a dozen performances of his artwork.
Contrary to popular belief, Cummings never legalized his name as “ee cummings”. His name should be properly capitalized.
The poem
EE Cummings’ poetic style is unique and highly visual. Its typographic independence was an experiment in punctuation, spelling, and rule-breaking. His reading style forces a certain rhythm into the poem. His language is simple and his poetry becomes fun and playful.
Cummings’ poem “I Carry Your Heart With Me” is about deep, profound love, the kind that can part the stars and transcend the soul or mind. The poem is easy to read, easy to speak, and easy to understand for people of all ages.
The poem could almost be called a sonnet. It has almost the right number of lines in almost the right combination. But, typical of a Cummings poem, it takes its own course and does so to great effect.
The poem makes an excellent love song when set to music. Outstanding guitarist Michael Hedges set “I carry your heart” to music on his album Taproot. Hedges himself sings the lead role, but backing vocals are provided by David Crosby and Graham Nash.
More than 168 original poems by Cummings have been set to music.
Enjoy the words and feelings of this famous poem.
i carry your heart with me
I carry your heart with me (I carry it inside me
my heart) I’m never without it (nowhere
I go, you go, my love; and whatever is done
only with me is your work, my darling)
I’m afraid
no fate (because you are my fate, my sweet) I want
no world (because you are beautiful my world, my true)
and you are what a moon has always meant
and whatever a sun will always sing, you are
Here is the deepest secret that no one 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; what grows
higher than the soul can hope or the mind hide)
and that is the miracle that separates the stars
I carry your heart (I carry it in my heart)
Thanks to Garry Gamber | #Carry #Heart #discussion #poem #Cummings
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