16 pages 32 minutes read

Jimmy Santiago Baca

I Am Offering This Poem

Fiction | Poem | YA | Published in 1990

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides that feature detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, quotes, and essay topics.

Symbols & Motifs

Declarations of Love

Baca’s explicit declaration of love occurs four times, and each forms a one-line stanza. The “I love you” (Line 7) motif enlivens every word in the poem so they ring in a unified chorus. Each time he repeats the refrain, the speaker’s intention behind writing the poem and choosing his specific imagery becomes clearer. Since he loves the person to whom he writes, he extends comfort, fulfillment, and tenderness to them through his words.

The visual simplicity of the four one-line stanzas emphasize the directness of the speaker’s feelings and the fact that his love is all he has to offer despite the concreteness of the images he uses to convey the depth of his love. The speaker has no ambivalence about his feelings of love, allowing them to stand on their own, surrounded by longer stanzas that allow the speaker to describe the details of his love. Contained in the poem itself, which is the speaker’s only “offering” (Line 1) to his beloved, this feeling of love is all the speaker has to give.

Related Titles

By Jimmy Santiago Baca

Study Guide

logo

A Place to Stand

Jimmy Santiago Baca

A Place to Stand

Jimmy Santiago Baca

Study Guide

logo

Immigrants in Our Own Land

Jimmy Santiago Baca

Immigrants in Our Own Land

Jimmy Santiago Baca

Study Guide

logo

Who Understands Me but Me

Jimmy Santiago Baca

Who Understands Me but Me

Jimmy Santiago Baca