In this episode of Elixir, Helen is talking to Martyn about [i carry your heart with me(i carry it in] by e.e. cummings (1894–1962).
The poem is read twice with a musical underscore on the second reading. You can find the text of the poem below.
They discuss:
The portability of love e.e. cummings conveys in the poem
Otherness due to being an immigrant, or minority in a country - an experience Martyn shares with his wife.
Being rooted in a place through one’s love & relationship.
Assimilation & acculturation and one’s sense of self living in a foreign country.
Cummings’s experience in WW1
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Screenshot from YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jutVovQFqvI
Text of the poem:
i carry your heart with me (i carry it in
my heart) i am never without it (anywhere
i go you go,my dear; and whatever is done
by only me is your doing, my darling)
i fear
no fate (for you are my fate, my sweet)i want
no world (for beautiful you are my world, my true)
and it’s you are whatever a moon has always meant
and whatever a sun will always sing is you
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)
“[i carry your heart with me(i carry it in]” Copyright 1952, © 1980, 1991 by the Trustees for the E. E. Cummings Trust, from Complete Poems: 1904-1962 by E. E. Cummings, edited by George J. Firmage. Used by permission of Liveright Publishing Corporation.
Source: Complete Poems: 1904-1962 (Liveright Publishing Corporation, 1991)
About the poet:
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/poems/49493/i-carry-your-heart-with-mei-carry-it-in
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E._E._Cummings
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jutVovQFqvI e.e. cummings documentary
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jutVovQFqvI the poet reading his own work