The definition of love is something that varies greatly among individuals. In E. E. Cummings’s poem “i carry your heart with me”, Cummings effectively conveys that true love is a powerful force that brings complete unity between two people through the use of various literary devices such as capitalization, point of view, form, and imagery to enhance the meaning of his poem. First of all, Cummings intentionally defies a common rule of capitalization throughout the entire poem. Every time the speaker is referring to himself he chooses to keep the personal pronoun “i” (1) lowercase.
In doing so, Cummings is conveying that one person is not dominant within a relationship thereby making the speaker recognize his insignificance as a single individual. This aids Cummings in expressing the idea that love is about being a team in which both participants work together in unity. Furthermore, Cummings chose to write this poem from the first person point of view as a man speaking to his lover. He makes this clear through the use of phrases such as “i carry your heart with me” (1) and “i fear/ no fate(for you are my fate,my sweet)” (6).
By writing in first person point of view, Cummings is effectually making the writing much more personal and heartfelt to lead the reader to the conclusion that love is especially intimate and special between individuals. To complement the personal tone, Cummings writes the poem in a manner in which the speaker directly addresses his lover through the use of second person pronouns and frequent endearments such as “my dear” (3), “my sweet” (6), and “my true” (7). In doing this, Cummings effectively gives the poem a much more passionate and amorous tone.
At first glance, the form in which Cummings crafts his lines and stanzas seems rather flawed and unconventional; although it is true that some aspects of his style are strange, they actually enhance the poem rather than acting as a defect. To be specific, Cummings removes the spaces between words and punctuation marks. There are several examples of this stylistic choice, but one that illustrates it very clearly can be found in a portion of the first stanza which reads “i am never without it(anywhere/ i go you go,my dear;and whatever id done/ by only me is your doing, my darling)” (2-4).
The way in which Cummings opts to not include spaces between the words of his poem and the parenthesis, commas, and semicolons included therein, indicates to the reader that nothing can come between true love. The use of enjambment in which the lines of the poem flow together without interruption is also evidence of Cummings belief that true love is the product of inseparable unity.
Another element of Cummings’s style that is exceptionally noticeable is the use of parenthesis around phrases that are especially romantic and endearing such as “(for you are my fate,my sweet)” (6) and “for beautiful you are my world, my true)” (7). The way he makes the parenthesis wrap around the passionate serenades is symbolic for a lover’s embrace which gives the poem a more heartfelt and complex message. To continue, Cummings uses imagery to enhance the language of his writing and to amplify the meaning of the work.
The use of natural imagery can be clearly observed in the third stanza which reads, “(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 soul can hope… ” (11-13). Through the use of the words “root”, “bud”, “sky”, and “tree” which are all things that are found in nature, Cummings is conveying to the reader that love is natural and just like a tree can grow, the feelings of love between two individuals can grow and blossom.
Further instances of natural imagery can be seen when the speaker says, “you are whatever a moon has always meant/ and whatever a sun will always sing is you” (8-9) and “this is the wonder that’s keeping the stars apart” (14). By alluding to the sun, moon, and stars in relation to the love between two people, Cummings is giving a symbolic representation that the speaker’s adoration is vast like the galaxy. The literary choices with which Cummings writes this particular poem greatly enhance and support the message that he is wishing to deliver to the reader.
The point of view he chooses to write in helps make the poem much more intense and passionate. The great emotion that can be felt from this is coupled by the way he intentionally crafts his writing into a continuous and uninterrupted declaration of love. Cummings’s careful choice of words and strong imagery help illustrate the quality of the speaker’s love and deepen the overall meaning of the poem to allow the reader to draw several different interpretations as to the meaning of love.
