Stanza 3 Summary

Lines 14-16

Keep it, treasure this as you would
if you were lost, needing direction,
in the wilderness life becomes when mature;

• The speaker tells his listener to "treasure" his poem, to use it as a guide that provides direction when she's lost in the "wilderness" of life. In describing life as a "wilderness," we can again see the speaker using another metaphor.
• By saying that life becomes a wilderness "when mature," the speaker also suggests that life gets harder as we grow older. Spoiler alert, right? We're sorry to burst your bubble if you thought it somehow got easier.

Lines 17-19

and in the corner of your drawer,
tucked away like a cabin or hogan
in dense trees, come knocking,

• The speaker imagines the poem tucked away in the corner of a drawer—which is where his beloved keeps it, the way you might store any souvenir or keepsake that has special meaning. 
• The speaker likens the poem being tucked away in a drawer to the way a "cabin or hogan" is tucked away in the trees (a hogan is a traditional Navajo house). Here we can see the speaker using a simile to describe how hidden the hiding spot will be.
• The speaker says that his beloved will come knocking at his cabin door. Um, come again?
• The speaker uses imagery in complicated ways here. First, he compares the poem sitting in a drawer to a cabin—any cabin—among trees. And then, he imagines the beloved coming to knock at his particular cabin door. So the poem's hiding spot is transformed into a cabin, at whose door the speaker then imagines his beloved is knocking. This is a bit complex, but essentially the transformation goes like this: 1) "put my poem in drawer," 2) "my drawer is like a cabin in the woods," 3) "now I'm in a cabin in the woods," and 4) "you're knocking on the door of my cabin."

Lines 20-23

and I will answer, give you directions,
and let you warm yourself by this fire,
rest by this fire, and make you feel safe
I love you,

• The speaker says that, when his listener knocks on his door, he'll answer and give her directions. Ain't he sweet?
• He'll let his beloved warm herself by his fire and he'll make her feel safe. Even though the speaker doesn't explicitly mention the "cold" or "winter" here, the reference to the fire suggests the idea that it's cold outside (otherwise why would the speaker have a fire going in his cabin?). Our cold weather motif continues.
• Again, the speaker tells his beloved, "I love you." Boy does he love her. We think we're getting the point.