Valentine Flashcards
(13 cards)
Rough plan
Beginning - subverts traditional notions/stereotypes of love
Middle - senses resistance, insecurity
End - lethality of love
Opening quotes
‘Not a red rose or a satin heart.’
‘I give you an onion. It is a moon wrapped in brown paper.’
Middle quotes
‘I am trying to be truthful.’
‘I give you an onion. Its fierce kiss will stay on your lips,/ possessive and faithful/ as we are, for as long as we are’
End quotes
‘Take it./ Its platinum loops shrink to a wedding ring’
‘Lethal./ Its scent will cling to your fingers,/ cling to your knife.’
‘Not a red rose or a satin heart.’
- open with explicit rejection of traditional, stereotypical images of romance
- suggests that these images are clichéd & lack depth
- end stopped line conveys finality and allows reader to ponder
- juxtaposes our initial expectations of title
‘I give you an onion. It is a moon wrapped in brown paper.’
- speaker has an intended audience through ‘you’
- stereotypical images juxtaposed by domestic object of onion
- extended metaphor for love, which have joy and pain inextricably linked
- can cause pain (crying) and can nourish humans
- shows multifaceted nature of love, refuting industrial love
- makes it seem celestial through metaphor as moon associated with fertility, love
- brown paper covering emphasises how it is unsentimental and plain however there is care ‘wrapped’
- love is not always as ostensibly seems and must be unwrapped to enjoy, sexual undertones
‘I am trying to be truthful.’
- succinctly states motivation behind decision of using onion as valentine
- seems to sense lover’s resistance therefore reiterating why its a perfect gift
- alliteration emphasises significance as single stanza line which almost splits poem into 2, making it seem like heart of poem
- importance of truth in love
- end stop
‘I give you an onion. /Its fierce will stay on your lips,/ possessive and faithful/ as we are, for as long as we are’
- repetition of initial statement as if she is becoming forceful
- compared onion’s sharp taste and smell to a fierce kiss
- onions notorious for pungent smell but ability to linger makes it a loyal good expression of love
- likens scent to lover’s attachment with simile with flattering & unflattering terms
- syntax of adjectives shows flaws in love emotionally
- slight insecurity in love ‘for as long as we are’
‘Take it./ Its platinum loops shrink to a wedding ring’
- imperative on its own line with end stop is forceful, uncooperative going against her message of raw, natural love which is ironic
- in a way praises this raw love as it can lead to devotion of marriage, platinum shows value
- also condemns showing image of wedding ring to be constricting with verb ‘shrink’
- however platinum is not gold
‘Lethal./ Its scent will cling to your fingers,/ cling to your knife.’
- overtly violent imagery for love poem which is shocking
- anaphora ‘cling to’ demonstrate dangers of love, restricting, volatile
- potential for wounds, physically and emotionally
- knife cuts onion symbolising deliberate painful acts required to expose truth of relationship, vulnerability
- connotations of betrayal or harm
- perhaps clinging to fingers refers to how even after breaking up they can affect you (cc has)
Structure
Stanzas of irregular line lengths, free verse
Deliberately shunned formal properties of love poetry eg sonnet, rhyming couplets
Dramatic monologue at intended audience
Context
Duffy is an open bisexual
1st female poet laureate
Subject to tackling difficult subjects like gender oppression, sexuality
Written poem when radio asked her to write a poem for Valentine’s day
Overview
Duffy uses ‘Valentine’ as a means to subvert the traditional, stereotypical notions of love, in favour of honest, domestic love demonstrated through the metaphor of an onion. This poem was written in response to a request from a radio station asking for her to write a poem for Valentine’s day.
