I Carry Your Heart with Me

Many poets work diligently to create a unique style to communicate their ideas and leave an indelible mark on the literary world. Edward Estlin Cummings (1894-1962), better known as E. E. Cummings, created an innovative and clearly distinct personal style that reinvented grammatical rules and traditional poetic structures within his pieces. One of his most famous pieces, “i carry your heart with me (i carry it in)” (1952) is an example of his creative use of figurative language, punctuation, and literary devices.

“i carry your heart with me (i carry it in)” at a Glance

E. E. Cummings, the writer of "i carry your heart with me (i carry it in)" poses for a picture.

“i carry your heart with me (i carry it in)” rhyme scheme

E. E. Cummings was a Modernist writer who believed that the true meaning of something is best expressed using precise language. His innovative style experiments with punctuation, capitalization, and form. Using the traditional 14-line sonnet structure with a set rhyme scheme and meter as his foundation, Cummings reformats it to make it his own by adding an extra line consisting of two words and altering the rhyme. The topic, love, is a traditional idea explored in sonnets. Cummings also employs internal rhyme, perfect rhyme, and slant rhyme to help establish the sonnet form further, creating his own version of the traditional form.

Reimagined using his unique style of visual cues, spacing, phrases, lines, and punctuation, Cummings creates a rhythm all his own. No set pattern of rhyme is clear, but internal rhyme, slant (or near) rhyme, and assonance create a unifying structure that makes this lyric poem both musical and memorable.

Internal slant rhyme in words like "heart" (line 1) "never" (line 2) "dear" (line 3) and "darling" (line 4) bring a cohesive unity to the ideas and mimic a childhood nursery rhyme, making the verse appealing to the ears. Instances of assonance, such as the repeated long "o" sound in line 13 with the phrase "soul can hope" bring an emphasis to ideas. The long "o" sound further imitates a musical instrument playing in the background of a song and provides a lilting rhythm.

By apostrophizing the beloved throughout the poem, the readers feel an intimate connection to the subject and are included within the action. As though the audience is eavesdropping, we understand the speaker's feelings and are invested in the relationship between the poetic voice and the unnamed beloved. To further personalize the speech, the poetic voice uses terms of endearment like “dear” (line 3) and “darling” (line 4). Immediately, the reader understands the intimate connection the speaker shares with the individual addressed.

Enjambment

Although the use of enjambment is not new in poetry, E. E. Cummings's use of this literary device serves to emphasize his creative liberty in writing and unique style.

In this second stanza of the poem, we see Cummings implement the use of enjambment to link the ideas together from line to line and to pressure the reader to search for syntactic closure. This need to finish the idea or sentence from the previous line propels the reader forward and helps to give the poem momentum.

From line 5 to 6 the incomplete idea is initially misleading to the reader, and when completed, surprises. The speaker begins by stating “i fear” in line 5 and then abruptly finishes the idea in a novel way by asserting “no fate(for you are my fate, my sweet)” in line 6. Toying with reader expectations, E. E. Cummings manipulates language and form to express the antithesis of what the reader expects. After a strong and simple “i fear” statement, the reader expects to see a list of fears, but rather sees there is no fear present.

Alliteration

A unique trait of “i carry your heart with me (i carry it in)” is that it keeps musicality without a traditional rhyme or meter. Although many lines have the same number of syllables, there is no concrete rhyme scheme or pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables. One way Cummings achieves the musical feel is through alliteration.