“[i carry your heart with me(i carry it in]”

“[i carry your heart with me(i carry it in]” is a love poem that touches on the personal love the speaker has for their beloved. In order to clarify its importance, the speaker explains how love makes them feel personally, and also how important love is as a force in the universe at large. After pointing out the epic quality of their love, they return to telling the lover why it is important the lover be careful with it.

The poem begins with a metaphor: The speaker describes carrying their beloved’s “heart with [them]” (Line 1) in some sort of container—a vessel clarified in the second line as the speaker’s own “heart” (Line 2). This immediately suggests that the speaker has taken some ownership of the beloved’s heart, and that they hold it within their own core. Symbolically, the heart is the seat of love and lifeblood; it is the organ that keeps the body alive. Thus, this metaphor makes it clear that the beloved’s vital element (the heart) is central to the functioning of the speaker.

In the next lines, the speaker indicates that even when the lovers are apart, the speaker is “never without” (Line 2) the beloved’s essence: “anywhere / I go you go” (Lines 2-3).