I Am Offering This Poem

Fiction | Poem | YA | Published in 1990

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Summary

Background

Poem Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Literary Devices

Themes

Love’s Refrain

This poem wears its heart on its sleeve, with the phrase “I love you” (Line 7) repeated four times. These repetitions, together with the poem’s tone and imagery, convey a deep, abiding affection for the speaker’s beloved only rightly communicated in the form of a poem.

Baca draws attention to the sentiment “I love you” (Line 7) not only through repetition but by placing it in one-line stanzas and tabbing the words away from the left margin of the page. Due to its positioning, the phrase stands out for the person reading the poem in silence, as well as the person reading it aloud. The stanza breaks and extra white space both create pauses in the poem’s pacing when read out loud. Further, Baca ends the poem with the fourth repetition of “I love you” (Line 30), a parting message for his beloved and the most important message he wants to convey.

A tender tone reinforces this message. The speaker expresses care and concern for the beloved, considering the harsh trials that await. He compares the very poem to a series of comforting objects and expresses a desire to “make you feel safe […]” (Line 22). He doesn’t merely want the beloved to understand his affection; he wants to provide for their needs with that affection, expressed through poetry. He also repeats, “I have nothing else to give” (Line 2). This implies that if he had something other than poetry to give his beloved, he would gladly offer that as well.

Baca mixes his tender tone with moments of gentle urgency. He repeats that his beloved should “Keep” (Line 3) the poem and “treasure” (Line 14) it. He insists that they treat the poem as the valuable token it is, since it embodies his love and, indeed, can sustain them. They shouldn’t place it somewhere where it can come to harm but, rather, “in the corner of your drawer [...]” (Line 17).

The poem’s imagery reinforces the speaker’s desire to see his beloved comfortable, happy, and protected. He compares his love poem with “a warm coat” (Line 3) and “a cabin or hogan” (Line 18), among other objects of bodily protection. These things provide warmth, fulfillment, and shelter. When comparing the poem to a dwelling, the speaker also makes the comparison personal, writing, “come knocking, / and I will answer [...]” (Lines 19-20). He intends the beloved to hold onto the poem as a memento and a lasting connection to him. This poem is a promise that whenever the beloved reads it, the speaker will draw close and provide for their needs.

He also wants to accompany his beloved in darkest moments. In the second-to-last stanza, he writes:

[…] when the world outside

no longer cares if you live or die;

remember,

I love you (Lines 27-30).

The speaker doesn’t possess a casual love that passes when hardship arrives. He wants his beloved to keep his love poem close to their heart to shield them against the world’s indifference and give them strength to carry on.

Poetry as Protection Against a Harsh World

In “I Am Offering This Poem,” the speaker repeats these lines are “all I have to give [...]” (Line 24). However, this idea does not mean that poetry is a meager offering. On the contrary, Baca illustrates throughout that this poem fuels survival.

In multiple stanzas, Baca describes a cruel, callous “world outside” (Line 27) with repeated references to winter and a threatening forest. Both poetry and love oppose this brutal landscape, as he depicts with vivid imagery. Using similes and metaphors, Baca compares his love poem with objects like “thick socks” (Line 5), “a pot full of yellow corn” (Line 9), “a scarf for your head” (Line 11), and “fire […]” (Line 21).

All of these objects protect people against cold weather and illness. Additionally, the corn sustains the hungry; fire can aid in cooking. As a group, these items form the essentials for human survival: food, clothing, and shelter. By equating his love poem with these elements, the speaker highlights its importance for his beloved.

The poem’s second-to-last stanza expands the poem’s reach beyond the beloved. The speaker states that it is “all anyone needs to live, / and to go on living inside [...]” (Lines 25-26). These lines elevate both poetry and love at once, since the “It” of Line 24 likely refers to the love poem itself.

This poem, sentimental and empathetic, can warm any heart--not only the heart of its intended object. Poetry, then, can give vitality to readers whom the world may have forgotten. Additionally, when a poem expresses devotion this deep, it is a priceless object.

Isolation and Aloneness

Juxtaposed against the themes of love and protection in “I Am Offering this Poem” are the themes of isolation and aloneness in a potentially harsh world. The title of the poem contains the first suggestion that the speaker of the poem understands isolation; the speaker merely “offers” the reader the poem, and this word choice implies that the speaker is aware that the reader, his beloved, may reject or ignore the offering. Throughout the poem, no mention of acceptance of the love, an exchange of love or a reciprocated love appears, enhancing the one-sided effect of the speaker’s loving declarations.

Because the speaker’s love, like the poem, is presented to the reader as an “offering” and not a gift, the speaker reveals his own humility that might come from an awareness of what it means to be isolated and alone. Gifts, by their nature, require a recipient, and the speaker offers his love from a position of humble solitude, not needing the condition of a recipient to be able to offer genuine love.

The concrete imagery in the poem of a warm meal and seat by a fire also emphasize a sense of community and bonding that contrast with the speaker’s position of aloneness. To many, meals are an event to be shared by more than one person; similarly, a fireside position invites conversation and dialogue between two or more people. The emotional warmth of these images contrast with the lonely image of an individual speaker, suggesting to the reader what can happen if the offering of love is accepted.