Jimmy Santiago Baca—an American poet of Chicano descent—published "I Am Offering This Poem" in 1979. The poem is first and foremost a love poem, with the speaker insisting that love itself is a gift more valuable and sustaining than any material comfort. But the poem is also a meditation on the power of poetry in its ability to capture and express meaningful emotions, and to provide comfort in moments of loneliness or hardship.

• Read the full text of “I Am Offering This Poem”

• “I Am Offering This Poem” Summary

• “I Am Offering This Poem” Themes

  • 

    The Value of Love

    Where this theme appears in the poem:

    • Lines 1-30
  • 

    The Power of Poetry

    Where this theme appears in the poem:

    • Lines 1-30

• Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “I Am Offering This Poem”

  • Lines 1-2

    I am offering ...
    ... else to give.

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 3-7

    Keep it like ...
    ... I love you,

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 8-10

    I have nothing ...
    ... belly in winter,

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 11-13

    it is a ...
    ... I love you,

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 14-16

    Keep it, treasure ...
    ... becomes when mature;

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 17-20

    and in the ...
    ... I will answer,

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 20-22

    give you directions, ...
    ... you feel safe,

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 23-25

                             I love ...
    ... needs to live,

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 26-30

    and to go ...
    ... I love you.

    

    

    

    

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• “I Am Offering This Poem” Symbols

  • 

    Winter and Coldness

    Where this symbol appears in the poem:

    • Lines 3-6: “Keep it like a warm coat / when winter comes to cover you, / or like a pair of thick socks / the cold cannot bite through,”
    • Lines 10-12: “to warm your belly in winter, / it is a scarf for your head, to wear / over your hair, to tie up around your face,”
    • Lines 21-22: “let you warm yourself by this fire, / rest by this fire”

• “I Am Offering This Poem” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language

  • Repetition

    

    

    

    

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    Where repetition appears in the poem:

    • Line 2: “I have nothing else to give.”
    • Line 3: “Keep it”
    • Line 7: “                         I love you,”
    • Line 8: “I have nothing else to give”
    • Line 13: “                         I love you,”
    • Line 14: “Keep it”
    • Line 23: “                         I love you,”
    • Line 24: “It’s all I have to give,”
    • Line 30: “                         I love you.”

  • Alliteration

    

    

    

    

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    Where alliteration appears in the poem:

    • Line 3: “Keep,” “warm,” “coat”
    • Line 4: “when winter,” “comes,” “cover”
    • Line 6: “cold cannot”
    • Line 10: “warm,” “winter”
    • Line 28: “longer,” “live”

  • Consonance

    

    

    

    

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    Where consonance appears in the poem:

    • Line 2: “since,” “have,” “else,” “give”
    • Line 3: “warm,” “coat”
    • Line 4: “when winter,” “comes,” “cover”
    • Line 5: “like,” “thick socks”
    • Line 6: “cold cannot”
    • Line 7: “love”
    • Line 8: “have,” “give”
    • Line 9: “full,” “yellow,” “corn”
    • Line 10: “warm your,” “belly,” “winter”
    • Line 11: “scarf,” “your,” “wear”
    • Line 12: “over your hair,” “around your”
    • Line 15: “needing direction”
    • Line 16: “wilderness,” “becomes,” “when,” “mature”
    • Line 17: “corner,” “your drawer”
    • Line 18: “tucked,” “like,” “cabin,” “hogan”
    • Line 19: “come knocking”
    • Line 21: “warm yourself,” “fire”
    • Line 22: “rest,” “this,” “fire,” “feel safe”
    • Line 23: “love”
    • Line 24: “all,” “have,” “give”
    • Line 25: “all,” “anyone needs,” “live”
    • Line 28: “longer cares,” “or”
    • Line 29: “remember”

  • Assonance

    

    

    

    

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    Where assonance appears in the poem:

    • Line 4: “comes,” “cover”
    • Line 6: “through”
    • Line 7: “you”
    • Line 9: “corn”
    • Line 10: “warm”
    • Line 11: “wear”
    • Line 12: “hair”
    • Line 17: “corner,” “your drawer”
    • Line 22: “make,” “safe”
    • Line 24: “give”
    • Line 25: “live”
    • Line 26: “inside”
    • Line 27: “outside”
    • Line 28: “die”

  • Enjambment

    

    

    

    

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    Where enjambment appears in the poem:

    • Lines 3-4: “coat / when”
    • Lines 5-6: “socks / the”
    • Lines 9-10: “corn / to”
    • Lines 11-12: “wear / over”
    • Lines 14-15: “would / if”
    • Lines 18-19: “hogan / in”
    • Lines 27-28: “outside / no”

  • Simile

    

    

    

    

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    Where simile appears in the poem:

    • Lines 3-4: “Keep it like a warm coat / when winter comes to cover you”
    • Lines 5-6: “or like a pair of thick socks / the cold cannot bite through”
    • Lines 18-19: “tucked away like a cabin or hogan / in dense trees”

  • Metaphor

    

    

    

    

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    Where metaphor appears in the poem:

    • Lines 9-10: “so it is a pot full of yellow corn / to warm your belly in winter,”
    • Lines 11-12: “it is a scarf for your head, to wear / over your hair, to tie up around your face,”
    • Lines 14-16: “Keep it, treasure this as you would / if you were lost, needing direction, / in the wilderness life becomes when mature;”
    • Lines 19-22: “come knocking, / and I will answer, give you directions, / and let you warm yourself by this fire, / rest by this fire, and make you feel safe,”

  • Apostrophe

    

    

    

    

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    Where apostrophe appears in the poem:

    • Lines 1-30

• “I Am Offering This Poem” Vocabulary

  Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.

  • Hogan
  • Dense
  • (Location in poem: Line 18: “tucked away like a cabin or hogan”)

• Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “I Am Offering This Poem”

  • Form

  • Meter

  • Rhyme Scheme

• “I Am Offering This Poem” Speaker

• “I Am Offering This Poem” Setting

• Literary and Historical Context of “I Am Offering This Poem”

• More “I Am Offering This Poem” Resources

  • External Resources

    • "A Place to Stand" Trailer — Watch the trailer for "A Place to Stand," the movie based on Jimmy Santiago Baca's memoir of the same name.

    • Jimmy Santiago Baca Reads the Poem — Listen to Baca himself reading "I Am Offering This Poem" aloud.

    • More About Baca — For more information about Jimmy Santiago Baca, take a look at this brief overview of his life and work.

    • An Interview with Baca — Listen to an interview in which Baca talks about the power of language and what it was like to learn to read as a young man in prison.

    • Baca's Writing Workshops — Learn about Baca's nonprofit organization, Cedar Tree, which works to bring writing workshops for at-risk young people to prisons, community centers, and schools.

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