A new spring

Hidden beneath ice,

frosted breeze, blows away soft snow;

golden buds await.

Steamed milk

Sweet coco potion,

Held close, in an icy fog;

Warm me through, and through.

Meek sweetness

A softness inside,

Tough exterior from cold,

Hiding, from the world.

Jocelyn Lopez

AP Lang

White Pd.1

17 November 2021

“I am offering this poem” Response

In “I am offering this poem” the speaker uses imagery, personification, metaphors, and

repetition throughout the poem to develop the theme of how love is unconditional and can be

shown in many ways.

By comparing the poem to a “warm coat” and “thick socks” in lines three and five, the

speaker creates a warm and comforting feeling, evoking the sense of touch to feel the poem. The

imagery shows how the speaker wishes for the other person to feel, that being how they are

appreciated. In the context of the cold, being offered warm and thick clothes is cherished, the

speaker shows that they cherish the reader by offering them their love, since they have “nothing

else to give”. Even though the gifts that the speaker has may seem minimal, they offer protection

and show how strong their love is for the other person.

In line six, personification is used to show the cold trying to bite through the earlier gifts

by saying “the cold cannot bite through”. Giving life to cold allows the speaker to show how the

gift of “thick socks” not only protects from an injury of frostbite, but it also shows their love and

protects their heart. The cold can be related to hardships in life, and events that test the love from
others. By protecting the person so they cannot be bitten, the speaker shows that their love is

strong, and cannot be broken even in hard situations. By looking to stop the biting from hurting

the reader before it happens, the love is deepened from simply caring and tending to them, to

defending and protecting them.

The speaker’s love is then compared to yellow corn and a scarf in lines nine and eleven

as metaphors. By comparing the gifted poem to things like food and shelter, it connects it to

basic human needs. The speaker shows how love is something vital to survival, and not just

something on an emotional level. The importance of love is increased as it changes to be seen as

a necessity. By mentioning that they have “nothing else to give”, the speaker may be giving

away their own resources such as food, or a coat for the person they love. Because they are

sacrificing their own wellbeing for the reader, their love is strengthened.

Furthermore, the use of a metaphor is seen in line sixteen with “in the wilderness life

becomes when mature”. As time passes, life is compared to being a wilderness, which shows that

it becomes harder, and more barbaric. However, even though the unwelcoming time of life and

maturity, the speaker's love is still present in the form of a map to guide them when lost. The

speaker shows many difficult situations in life, in which they would still be there to love and

support the person, giving reassurance. As the speakers continue to provide comfort, meaning

that they do not want their love to be implied or unsure, but to strongly state how unconditional

their love is. Potential fears that the other person may have are addressed by the speaker in order

to preemptively subside the worry.

In line eighteen the poem is compared to a cabin, “tucked away like a cabin or hogan”,

which has a different kind of value than the earlier gifts. Previously, the poem was offered as
small gifts such as a coat, a scarf or some corn, however, the cabin has larger value. While the

other gifts have a single way to use them or can only be used once, the cabin can be used again

and again for a long time and can be used however the person choses. The forest surrounding the

cabin is a part of the wilderness, showing the cabin as protection from the barbaric outside.

Throughout the poem, at the end of each stanza the speaker repeats “I love you” four

times, which not only creates a stronger emphasis on how much they love them, but also

continues the idea of their love being unconditional. Regardless of what the speaker stated in the

past stanza, “I love you” is still repeated after to show that no matter the situation they still have

the same amount of love, which does not go away.