There's some nice videos made by other people using this reading. Here's one made by a gentleman as a tribute to his pretty little daughter: vimeo.com/62305015 Here's a wedding video .vimeo.com/34421326 If you're of a romantic disposition watch these videos.. Don't read what I say about the poem. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED. This is a poem that many people find enchanting. I'm not one of them. If you are one of them, please stop reading now. There is too little enchantment in the world and I don't want to disenchant you. If you love this poem we can still be on friendly terms - but it is unlikely that we will ever be close friends or have very much in common. We could form a pact of mutual non-aggression. The main reason I do not like this poem is that it is so monumentally stupid. It says nothing sincere, nothing worth hearing or knowing. Similar sentiments appear on any Valentine's Day card. If you read any of my previous criticisms, you may have noticed that I get snotty with people who criticise venerable pieces saying, "To which particular defect in your nature do you attribute your lack of appreciation?" So I will tell you why I do not like it and let you see just how defective my nature is. The first line might have been written by Edgar Allan Poe. Why on earth should I be carrying your heart? Love poems are supposed to conjure up pleasant images. Not an image of a creepy man in a tube train with a sticky plastic bag. Of course, there could be a benign reason why I might be carrying your heart: maybe it is needed for a transplant to save somebody's life. But whatever circumstances occasioned your heart to be removed from your body, none of them presage a happy outcome. I would rather your heart remained in your body pumping blood around to irrigate those parts that I find most interesting and like to play with. Then the image "wherever you go, I go my darling" is an untenable intrusion on your personal privacy. There are some places I go that I would rather you did not go, and vice versa. I have never felt deprived by not having a Siamese twin. I prefer the separate status quo, heartwise and otherwise. There's a line that Crocodile Dundee sang, "If I give my heart to you, I'll have none and you'll have two." Next there is "Whatever is done by only me is your doing, my darling". I have always felt that people should take responsibility for their own actions. "She made me do it" is a defence I would never plead. If I do get caught, I promise I won't blame you. Nor do I believe that you are my world. My world has things in it that are not you. I hope you want more things in your world than just me. Otherwise our worlds would be oppressive, cramped and indistinguishable. . "I fear no fate" seems a foolish assertion. There are plenty of fates we should fear. Fear keeps us alive. Without fear we would do dangerous things like jumping off trains before they have stopped at the platform. Or not taking our vitamins. Now, about you being what the moon means and the sun sings. These ideas are simply insane. I refuse to give them further consideration. By definition, in the context, there is no such thing as a "secret nobody knows". For something to be a secret it is necessary for at least one person to know it. I dispute the assertion that a root can have a root, or that a bud can have a bud, or that a sky can have a sky. If you allow such theoretical propositions then my nose can have a nose. And that nose, in its turn, can have a nose and so on ad infinitum, which is preposterous. I am willing to admit that the tree has life, but actually calling a tree "Life" is confusing. There has to be a different name for the container from the names of the things it contains - or the theory behind naming things would be nonsense. And what would William Archibald Spooner make of a line containing "a soul can hope?" en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Archibald_Spooner Next the speculation about what is keeping the stars apart. Any astrophysicist worthy of his Mensa lapel logo will tell you that the stars are getting further apart. And they have been doing so ever since the universe started with a Big Bang. He'll also tell you that's why you see fuzzy lines on your TV screen when there's no transmission. (I've talked to them, they always tell me that. I am trying to think of a collective noun for a group of astrophysicists: a "constellation" perhaps?). If you ask an astrophysicist if the motivational force between stars is "love" or "wonder" the conversation will be brief. Maybe I'll try it next time I meet one. People might say that I am taking this poem too literally - I can't think why. E E Cummings has poetic licence to use images but he should consider their literal meanings beforehand and ask himself if they are silly. I carry your heart with me I carry it in my lunch box. Heh. Heh.

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