"[i carry your heart with me(i carry it in]," by E. E. Cummings

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)

+ E. E. Cummings

This poem (a modern take on an Elizabethan sonnet: fourteen lines and a loose rhyme scheme of ABAB CDCD EFEF GG) is commonly read as one of Cummings’ many renowned love poems — and surely it is that! But Cummings, the son of a pastor and a thoughtful theologian in his own right, was likely also riffing on the ancient tradition of using erotic love poetry as a form of exploring the love between God and humanity (the Bible’s Song of Solomon being the most famous example).

The sweeping, evocative language here strongly suggests as much, from the profound intimacy of “whatever is done / by only me is your doing,my darling” to the “tree of life” to the grand cosmic swirl of “moon” and “sun” and “the wonder that’s keeping the stars apart.”

If the Song of Solomon is any guide, this is precisely the kind of all-encompassing, all-infusing love relationship that God desires to have with us. “Our hearts are restless,” wrote St. Augustine, “until they rest in You.”