I Am Offering This Poem By Jimmy Santiago Baca

Immanuel Farag

Honors English 9

Mr. Higuera

2, February, 2023

Poetry in Humanity and Humanity in Poetry Joy, hatred, sorrow, and hope are just a few of the many emotions that can be found in poetry. This universal appeal allows other individuals to relate to what the poet is displaying. The effects of these appeals allow the reader to feel a connection with the poet. Some common universal appeals found in poems are love and hardship. Love can be visualized in the poem “I Am Offering This Poem” by Jimmy Santiago Baca and hardship can be portrayed in the poem “Mother to Son” by Langston Hughes. By portraying these powerful emotions, the poets reveal to the reader that love and hardship are felt by everyone. In the poem, “I Am Offering This

For instance, Baca writes, “Keep it, treasure it as you would / if you were lost, needing direction, / in the wilderness life becomes when mature” (14-16). In these lines, the poet expresses how love is similar to a treasure map that guides people to live contently with their lives. The poet also wants to remind the reader how difficult life can be as an adult in poverty, but as long as there is love, those issues won’t be dealt with alone. In addition, Baca states “It’s all I have to give, / and it’s all anyone needs to live, / and to go on living inside” (24-26). The lines express that love can be felt by anyone at any time no matter how poor or difficult life can be for that person. The poet also conveys the message that love lasts forever, and that no pain or suffering can ever remove it from our lives. Ultimately, the presence and effects of love in this poem show the reader the importance of grasping love throughout the distress in life, and how it is relatable to many other people whose experiences are similar to the

To illustrate, Hughes writes, as the persona of a mother, “Well, son, I’ll tell you: / Life for me ain’t been no crystal stair” (1-2). The poet uses the imagery of a crystal stair to visualize something of great wealth that the persona does not have. The poet’s use of contrasting the persona’s life to a crystal stair helps the reader understand that the persona lives in poverty and deals with many hardships in her life. Furthermore, Hughes writes, “It’s had tacks in it, / And splinters, / And boards torn up, / And places with no carpet on the floor— / Bare” (3-7). The first two lines of this section visualize tacks and splinters which can be painful when in contact with the human body, showing that the persona’s life has been very difficult. The poet also uses imagery of an empty, demolished house to represent how some of the persona’s experiences were similar to. In summary, the universal appeal of hardship is found in this poem by the poet’s use of powerful imagery which helps the reader visualize that the life of the persona has been filled with much