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

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.

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.