I Am Offering This Poem

Apostrophe occurs when a writer addresses a person who is not present. In “I Am Offering This Poem,” the poetic speaker addresses someone from the very beginning: “I am offering this poem to you [...]” (Line 1). He never identifies the person within the poem, but it appears to be a love interest or partner. The speaker declares his love four times in the poem and expresses concern for his intended's wellbeing, comfort, and safety throughout all stanzas.

Metaphors compare unlike things or ideas without using "like" or "as" to do so. Baca’s poem compares the poem itself with several physical necessities and, in so doing, creates vivid sensory imagery for the reader. In the third stanza, he says the poem “is a pot full of yellow corn” (Line 9). This image encompasses four of the five senses, evoking the smell and taste of starchy corn, the visual of the yellow vegetable in the pot, and its texture and temperature. 

Next, Baca writes the poem “is a scarf for your head, to wear / over your hair, to tie up around your face [...]” (Line 11-12). Like coats and socks, scarves keep people warm during cold months.