i carry your heart with me(i carry it in) Quotes
Shmoop will make you a better lover...of quotes
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here is the deepest secret nobody knows
(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)
and this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart
i carry your heart(i carry it in my heart)
Context
If this quote looks a bit weird, well, that's because e.e. cummings wrote it. It makes up the last two stanzas of his short, three-stanza poem, "[i carry your heart with me(i carry it in]."
In the first stanza, we swoony readers are introduced to the speaker's connection with his love; the second stanza and third (teeny-tiny) stanza take that love and make it a Big Deal.
Basically, their love is the stuff of the universe. The heart of the matter. The contents of your Hallmark card.
Where you've heard it
The craziness of Cummings' form and syntax doesn't usually make him very quotable. But the simplicity of this poem and its ability to glimpse the essence of such a hard-to-grasp thing (we're looking at you, love) have made this one of the 20th century's go-to love poems.
So yeah, it gets quoted in everything from Hallmark cards to cheesy movies to wedding ceremonies.
Pretentious Factor
If you were to drop this quote at a dinner party, would you get an in-unison "awww" or would everyone roll their eyes and never invite you back? Here it is, on a scale of 1-10.
What can we say? We humans have a thing for love.