Valentine Flashcards
(6 cards)
Emotional Trauma
“blind you with tears”
“Fierce kiss”
“knife”
Trauma caused by toxic relationships
Isolation
“Its platinum loops shrink to a wedding ring, if you like.”
Isolation from other people by shrinking socially into solely a couple without other social interaction; the restriction of relationships and marriage.
Loss
“blind you with tears”
Loss of a relationship, loss of metaphorical love but also literal loss of vision.
Change
“Not a red rose or a satin heart”
A deviance from typical valentines gifts
Change of tone in the last stanza to more morbid and dark, with the mention of lethality and a knife.
Love
“A moon wrapped in brown paper”
Duffy sees this as a romantic gift, immense and beautiful. The moon is a common theme in romance, think romantic dates in the moonlight.
“Careful undressing of love”
Literally, but also how romance and love metaphorically peels away outer walls and barriers to reveal the vulnerable heart within
Contrast
“It promises light like the careful undressing of love/it will blind you with tears like a lover”
The contrast between the sweet intimacy that love can bring, compared to the pain caused when love goes wrong.
