E. E. Cummings is a poet perhaps best known for his experimentations with syntax, punctuation, and spacing, all of which are on display in his 1952 poem. As indicated by its title, “i carry your heart with me” is a love poem. Significantly, Cummings structured it as a sonnet, which links it to a long lineage of love sonnets stretching back to Petrarch and Shakespeare. For most readers, however, the sonnet structure isn’t initially obvious. For one thing, the poem has fifteen rather than fourteen lines. Cummings also wrote the poem in free verse, avoiding the more traditional meter of the sonnet form, which is iambic pentameter. Finally, though the poem does feature some clear rhymes, much of the rhyming is indirect and difficult to hear. Even so, in his own idiosyncratic way Cummings approximates the structure, meter, and rhyme of the sonnet form. The speaker of the poem addresses their beloved throughout, expressing a sense of radical intimacy, while also contemplating the mysterious forces of attraction. What begins as a seemingly conventional poem about romantic love gradually morphs into a philosophical exploration of love’s inherent spirituality.

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