i carry your heart with me(i carry it in my heart)
This sentence “carries” the gist of this poem. It describes the addressee’s heart as something that can be carried—as though it were a tangible object—and says that the speaker is bearing it at all times and places. It also states that the speaker’s heart is a vessel containing the addressee’s heart.
With this single line, Cummings artfully makes an argument about love, and furthermore, about different states of being. In this poem, abstract concepts like love become tangible objects, and living, breathing human beings are associated with broad and fuzzy ideas like fate. Thus, the poem not only talks about a particular romantic relationship, but also describes the much more abstract and universal boundaries of the metaphysical and the physical.
The poem both starts and ends with this sentence, only with different line breaks. The first instance of “i carry your heart […]” introduces the poem’s unconventional punctuation, spacing, and enjambment. The parenthetical phrase “(i carry it in,” which is not preceded by a space, creates the sense that the speaker is transferring, or introducing, something “into” a different space. The latter instance of this line not only provides a sense of closure, but also sounds quite different from the first iteration, because the speaker has traveled through different realms—treetops, outer space, the extremities of the universe—carrying the beloved’s heart.
you are whatever a moon has always meant
and whatever a sun will always sing is you
The speaker is basically stating that the addressee of their love poem means everything to them. The “moon” and “sun,” here, can mean several things. First, they may be associated with the act of art-making. The sun and the moon have inspired many works of art, and artists have assigned various meanings to them. Likewise, the addressee of this poem is, and continue to be, a source of inspiration and meaning for the speaker.
Another interpretation of this line focuses on the notion of time and eternity. The sun and moon are the foundations for days, months, and other temporal constructs. The speaker seeks the meaning of time (“whatever a moon has always meant”) and life in their love for the addressee. The word “always” also conveys a sense of eternity—the beloved will permanently be a foundation for the speaker’s existence.
“(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 or mind can hide)”
The speaker moves on from the concept of love to the broader concept of life. The word “here” refers to the speaker’s love. Love, then, is the basis for life—it is the foundation (“the root of the root”), outcome (“the bud of the bud”), and terminus (“the sky of the sky”) of existence.
Life, like a tree infinitely growing, is something that the human mind cannot fathom. It surpasses our expectations (“grows / higher than soul can hope”) and goes beyond the limits of our understanding (“or mind can hide”). Enclosed in parentheses, this sentence is the “deepest secret” referred to in the preceding line.
