Get out the microscope, because we’re going through this poem line-by-line.
Lines 1-2
I am offering this poem to you,
since I have nothing else to give.
- The speaker begins by saying that he is offering the poem to "you," since he has nothing else to give. So in the poem, the speaker directly addresses a lover as "you."
- By extension, he's (we're just assuming our speaker is a he at this point) also addressing the "you" of the reader—meaning us. As he's talking to his lover, then, he's also talking to us. Do you feel special, yet?
- The fact that the speaker says that he has "nothing else to give" suggests that he's poor. So these first couple of lines are also telling us something about the speaker's socioeconomic status: he doesn't have much money or material wealth. For more on this, check out our "Speaker" section.
Lines 3-7
Keep it like a warm coat
when winter comes to cover you,
or like a pair of thick socks
the cold cannot bite through,
I love you,
- The speaker tells his beloved to keep the poem like "a warm coat" for the winter, or like "a pair of thick socks" that can protect from the cold.
- By comparing his poem to a coat and a pair of socks, the speaker uses the poetic device of simile. That simile suggests that the poem is something that is protective: it's warm and snuggly, like a written snuggie.
- That's good news for us (well, for the addressed lover, anyway). The cold isn't pleasant—not if we don't have warm clothes. The cold imagery here suggests that the beloved lives in a "cold" world—metaphorically speaking, at least. That is, the world that the beloved lives in is harsh and dangerous (the cold can kill us, after all).
- The speaker also tells his listener that he loves her, so she's got that going for her. (We should point out that we're just assuming a he-she relationship here, but that's not actually clear yet in the poem.)