Trust your heart if the seas catch fire, live by love though the stars walk backward.

The lines urge fidelity to inner conviction and to love even when the external world seems to violate its own laws (“seas catch fire,” “stars walk backward”). Cummings often opposes rational, socially sanctioned “sense” to the deeper authority of feeling, imagination, and eros; here, the speaker frames love and the heart as reliable guides amid chaos, reversal, or catastrophe. The hyperbolic cosmic imagery functions less as prediction than as a test: even if reality becomes impossible, one should not abandon the ethical and emotional compass of love. The quote’s significance lies in its romantic defiance—an insistence that authentic living depends on trust and tenderness rather than fear or conformity.