We
There are two characters in this poem, but the poet clearly indicates to the reader that they are to be viewed as a collective entity. This indication is manifested by the use of repetition throughout the verse. For instance, each stanza begins with the same line in which the speaker asserts that "we" were both tired and merry. Plural pronoun usage throughout situates the couple as "us" and "we" with a complete absence of gender-specific pronouns to distinguish the sex of either the speaker or the companion.
The poem offers very little specific identifying description, in fact. All information about these two people is addressed elliptically and allusively. For instance, it can be assumed they are not wealthy because the means of transport they use is a public ferry that smells strongly of horses. In addition, the entire theme of the story is bound up in the simple pleasures of an inexpensive night spent having fun together doing very little but enjoying each other's company. Their sustenance for the night is limited to a dozen apples and a dozen pears, and they do not even eat all of them.
This poem is a portrait of young love that has no need of great expense nor, for that matter, external entertainment. Satiated by their feelings for each other, they carelessly buy a paper from an old woman that they do not even intend to read and compound this act of simple extravagant charity by also offering her the remainder of their fruit as well as all the money they have left but for the cost of a subway ride home. The two together represent a collective single entity bound together by passion and free-spirited obliviousness to the rest of the world except as the feeling strikes them.
