Valentine
By Carol Ann Duffy
• Duffy’s style is contemporary and she is
renowned for giving voice to those who have
been alienated or edited in history.
• Duffy also writes from a personal perspective
about complex situations, but her use of
language makes these works highly accessible
and intriguing.
Style
• ‘Valentine’ – explores the different stages of a modern
relationship through the extended metaphor of an onion.
• ‘Havisham’ – re-examination of Dickens’ character Miss
Havisham and her bitter heartbreak, as evoked through
brutal imagery.
• ‘War Photographer’ – the damaging observations of conflict,
its victims and its distant observers, told through the eyes of
the photographer who captures the brutal images.
• ‘Anne Hathaway’ – a sonnet that gives voice to
Shakespeare’s ‘neglected’ wife. Here she tells her
romanticised version of their relationship.
• ‘Mrs Midas’ – examines the consequences of selfish and vain
decisions in modern relationships, written using the myth of
Midas and from the perspective of his fictional wife.
• ‘Originally’ – Duffy’s personal poem about her experiences
with dual identity. Her physical transition from Scotland to
England is explored, as is the transformation from child into
adult.
Themes and Links of set poems
Not a red rose or a satin heart.
I give you an onion.
It is a moon wrapped in brown
paper.
It promises light
like the careful undressing of
love.
Here.
It will blind you with tears
like a lover.
It will make your reflection
a wobbling photo of grief.
I am trying to be truthful.
Valentine
Not a cute card or a
kissogram.
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.
Take it.
Its platinum loops shrink to a
wedding-ring,
if you like.
Lethal.
Its scent will cling to your
fingers,
cling to your knife.
• Havisham
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Love (rejected)
Senses/sensory images
Repetition
Symbolism
Colour
Metaphor
Narrative voice
• Valentine
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•
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Love (offered)
Senses/sensory images
Repetition
Symbolism
Colour
Metaphor
Narrative voice
Compare and
contrast.
In your groups prepare a presentation on your stanza.
Examine:
1. Mood, imagery,
2. metaphor, themes,
3. Narrative voice and tone
4. Structure and word choice.
5. Symbolism and literary devices
-------------------------------------------------------Enjambment, caesura, colour symbolism, alliteration,
plosives, sibilance,
metaphor, simile, oxymoron, dark imagery, voice, climax,
Analyse word choice and aspects of punctuation.
You should also refer to how mood is created,
How Duffy uses narrative voice, tone and symbolism
Valentine Collaborative Learning
• Stages of a modern relationship
• Extended metaphor of the onion
• Is actually a true representation of Duffy’s relationship
• This suggests Duffy is criticising/rejecting conventional
ideas and empty gestures of love.
• She is promising her lover, and the reader that her love is
more original, honest and true.
• The extended metaphor of the onion being like her love
runs through the whole poem.
• By doing this Duffy turns an ordinary object, an 'onion'
into an unusual symbol of love, and makes it seem a
more appropriate symbol than traditional Valentine gifts.
Symbols, themes and metaphor
• Mood is optimistic, romantic in an unconventional way. It appears
personal through first person narrative. I give you…
• Onion metaphor looks at aspects of love and relationships,
• Image of conventional love gifts start the poem
• Not a red rose, satin heart… this is then subverted by I give you an
onion. Like Havisham the opening lines are very striking and through
unconventional language we are pulled into the world of the
poem. The Onion and Beloved sweetheart bastard intrigue and
shock the reader from the outset by the tone and ambiguity of the
narrative voice.
• The mood is calm, the narrator self-assured as she reveals how the
onion represents stages of a love affair or relationship. She makes
commands, requests and explains why the metaphorical onion is
important. Take it, here, I give you are all actions from the narrator
to show her commitment to the symbolic layers of an onion.
• Imagery is used at the end of the poem of wedding rings, perhaps
echoing the reasons for Havisham’s desolation, as she was denied
this matrimonial symbol. The narrator says ‘if you like’ to make a
request of her lover and link the layers and rings of the onion to their
relationship.
Group 1 2014 Mood and Imagery
• The title Valentine omits the word ‘Saint’ in connection with the
day that is celebrated by lovers, which leads to ambiguity; similar to
the poem Havisham. This removes the idea of traditional love and
romance and subverts it with new symbols. Havisham removes the
title ‘Miss’ present in the character in Great Expectations to show
that this woman is a ‘Spinster’ and therefore perceives herself as
alone and unloved.
• The theme of love is established from the start.
• The unwrapping of the ‘brown paper’ from the ‘moon’ suggests
emotional and physical exposure that comes with love.
• There seems to de a desperation to give love and have it
accepted in the poem that is always tinged with insecurity.
‘Possessive and faithful as we are/ for as long as we are; suggests
that all love is fragile and will one day end.
• The onion is the main extended metaphor and it represents
different stages in a relationship. ‘Light’ and the passion of love are
suggested, ‘tears’ show the fragility and sometimes sadness in love,
‘possessive and faithful’ shows the expected loyalty, contrasting
deeply with the word choices in Havisham, and the ‘scent’ of the
onion represents the memories and residual emotional feelings
leftover when a love affair breaks down.
Group 2 2014 metaphor and themes
• Sensory images start the poem. ‘Not a red rose or a satin heart / I
give you an onion’. The vivid symbolic red colour of the traditional
Valentine gift: the rose is negated, by the word ‘Not’, and replaced
with the plain onion wrapped in ‘brown paper’. We associate smell
and taste with this new symbol of love and Duffy plays on the
reader’s ability to imagine the sights, smells tastes and experiences
involved in this extended metaphor. She moves the reader away
from the traditional notions of love into an unconventional view on
love.
• The onion is compared to the moon, which is a symbol of love and
ironically, in this context, madness. The onion when cut reveals
‘platinum loops’ or wedding rings.
• The word ‘cling’ is repeated at the end of the poem to show how
her love will never be forgotten as it will cling to her lovers fingers.
‘Cling to your knife’ suggests the cutting of the relationship and
may seem to be a warning at the end of the poem.
• The mood changes here to one of foreboding predicting the
possible end of all relationships.
Imagery and mood 5D1 2014
• 1st person narrative: Havisham is hateful and vengeful and
ultimately sad and tragic, Valentine is confident in tone,
although at times the voice seems to contain a warning that
love can lead to sorrow and even heartbreak. ‘Blind you with
tears…’ ‘cling to your fingers, cling to your knife’. The tone
seems to offer much in the symbolic onion, as it represents the
wholeness of the individual and the togetherness of the
couple.
• The ‘I’ could be a male or female giving an androgynous
feeling to the poem, where we do not know if the speaker
and recipient of the message are male or female,
heterosexual or homosexual.
• The narrator uses repetition and minor sentences to
emphasise the sincerity of their love. ‘Here…’ ‘Take it…@ are
commands that show how much she wants give this symbol
of love.
Group 3 2014 Narrative Voice and Tone
• It appears to be structured very tightly through repeated phrases into two clear
halves. Not a red rose… starts the poem and ‘not a cute card or kissogram’
starts the second part of the poem. The first half seems to deal with the
traditional perceptions of romantic love and the second half with the passion
and physical aspects of love.
• The onion represents the relationship and how it can lead to tears while
promising light. The onion then represents ‘fierce’ physical passion in a kiss that
will ‘stay on your lips’ for as long as the relationship exists. This powerful image
suggests that love is seen as a unifying concept that is ‘possessive and faithful’
to the narrator.
• I am trying to be truthful uses the alliterative ’t’ sound to add a matter of fact
tone that is clipped and to the point, suggesting deep sincerity. This is the
central message and centre point of the poem. The two halves are organised
around this point, this line.
• ‘If you like’ suggests a desire from one partner to the other for more
commitment. This is said in a submissive way that shows a vulnerability in the
narrator.
• ‘Cling to your knife’. The symbol of threat to the relationship is captured in the
final line and the word ‘knife’ could cut their emotional ties the way we slice an
onion. We are left to consider the delicate balance in a relationship and the
fragility of love. ‘Lethal’. The minor sentences used in the poem add emphasis
the sense of foreboding at the end of the poem that suggests all love must end.
Group 4 Structure and word choice
• Onion is the main symbol, represents: love, light, passion,
grief, marriage and the end of relationships.
• Minor sentences: all are used for emphasis. Lethal
suggests death, here, take it a desire to give love in an
unconventional way.
• Alliteration: ‘t’ sound shows to sincerity, ‘c’ sound sounds
harsh and cheap when talking of other love symbols.
• Colour symbolism; brown paper (texture/colour, plain
package), red rose (traditional symbol) platinum (white)
for purity, marriage.
• Repetition: splits the poem and allows the poet extend
the onion metaphor into both halves of the poem for
different reasons.
Group5 Symbolism and literary devices
• Duffy's poem is structured around an extended
metaphor comparing love and an onion.
• In what ways is the onion like Duffy's love?
Onion
Love
• Its skin is white
• White is associated with truth,
faith, beauty, innocence, etc.
Onion
• It is round like a moon
• You peel an onion
• Causes tears
• Its taste is strong and
lasting
• Onions have rings
• The smell of an onion
will stay with you
connotations
Love
• The moon is associated
with romance
• Lovers undress each
other
• Causes tears
• Duffy’s kiss is fierce and
possessive
• Relationships are often
symbolised by a ring
• So will her love
Tone
The tone seems to be confident, seductive
and at the end of the poem strikes a note
of warning. In the table below is evidence
for each of these claims...
• Confident
• Seductive
• Warning
• Find examples of each and fully analyse
them.
Form
• Traditionally love poems are written in the form of
the Sonnet. The Sonnet is the standard form and was
used famously by Shakespeare.
• This poem is not a sonnet.
• Moreover the form of the poem is irregular:
The lines are of varied length and the rhymes come
in unusual places, to stress a particular word, such as
'lethal'.
• Duffy comes up with her own form because Duffy’s
rejection of the traditional form of poems is the same
as her rejection of the traditional symbols of love.
Subject
This is a wonderful, original, clever love poem. In it Duffy rejects
clichéd ideas of love and expresses how her love is: original,
clever, intense, romantic, emotional, truthful, fierce, possessive,
faithful, free and dutiful.
Attitude
The tone of the poem is genuine, confident, seductive,
intimate, and at the end pulls away to sound a note of
warning and seems to admit some weakness.
Style
Duffy manages to make the poem sound like a spoken
voice, despite the fact that she structures it around an
elaborate and imaginative extended metaphor.
Summary
Answer the following questions using evidence from
the text and literary terminology to analyse the
effectiveness and impact of the poem.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Explain briefly how the poet creates an authoritative tone in
the poem
Comment on the use of structure in the poem and say what
effect it has on our understanding of the tone.
Throughout the poem Duffy uses the extended metaphor of
the onion as a comparison to love. Using at least 2 examples
from the text explain how each one adds to your
understanding of this metaphor.
How effective do you find the last stanza as a conclusion to
the poem?
Using any one example from the poem show how the poet
makes her feelings clear about the traditional symbols of
love.
• Discuss Carol Ann Duffy’s use of imagery in this poem and
one other and show how the images effectively link to
the central themes and concerns of the poems.
(10 marks)
• Examine how effectively Carol Ann Duffy uses contrasting
moods in this poem and one other.
• (10 Marks)
THE BIG TEN
MARKER!!!!
• Examine how Carol Ann Duffy
uses narrative voice to explore
the central themes of this and
one other poem. (10marks)
• Use quotations and terminology to
add depth and detail to analysis:
structure, symbolism, metaphor,
alliteration, voice, themes, imagery,
word choice, impact.
The ten marker
• Up to 2 marks can be achieved for identifying elements of commonality as
identified in the question, ie use of contrast to highlight main concerns of this and
other poems by Duffy.
• A further 2 marks can be achieved for reference to the extract given. Additional
marks can be awarded for discussion of similar references to at least one other
poem by the poet. 0 marks for reference/quotation alone.
•
• Candidates can answer in bullet points in this final question, or write a number of
linked statements.
• In practice this means:
• Identification of commonality (2) (eg: theme, characterisation, use of imagery,
setting, or any other key element…)
• from the extract:
• 1 x relevant reference to technique/idea/feature (1)
• 1 x appropriate comment (1)
• (maximum of 2 marks only for discussion of extract) from at least one other
text/part of the text: as above (x3) for up to 6 marks
• OR
• more detailed comment x2 for up to 6 marks
• Thus, the final 6 marks can be gained by a combination of 3, 2 and 1 marks
depending on the level of depth/detail/insight. The aim would be to encourage
quality of comment, rather than quantity of references
Marking Advice
• http://www.bbc.co.uk/learningzone/clips/sunet
ra-sarker-on-carol-ann-duffy/8653.html
• Descriptions of Duffy:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Traditional Gifts
Traditional Activities
Negative
Connotations
• What does the speaker think about St Valentine’s Day and
the gifts that people give?
• Why does the speaker think that an onion is an appropriate
gift to give to a loved one?
• What words stand out as being unusual to you?
• Does the speaker’s mood shift throughout the poem? In what
ways?
• Do you like the poem? Why/why not?
• Why has Duffy chosen so many contrasting phrases of
traditional and modern love?
• In what ways do these contrasting ideas help to show Duffy’s
attitude towards what real relationships should be like?
• What do you think about giving traditional/clichéd gifts in
today’s society? Have they ever given any of these gifts?
analysis
• The four longer sections in the poem reflect
different stages in a modern relationship – from
the hopeful, romantic beginning through to the
potential marriage or painful break-up.
Structure
Onion
‘It is a moon wrapped in brown paper/It promises light’
‘It will blind you with tears like a lover’
‘It will make your reflection a wobbling photo of grief’
‘It’s fierce kiss will stay on your lips, possessive and faithful’
‘It’s platinum loops shrink to a wedding ring, if you like’
‘Lethal. Its scent will cling to your fingers, cling to your
knife.’
Love/relationships
The metaphor compares the onion to the moon. There is a
double meaning here of the physical resemblance but there
are also connotations of how we might ‘wrap’ traditional gifts
that we give to loved ones. The onion becomes symbolic of
modern relationships, with the ‘light’ being the positivity and
feeling of hope experienced at the start of a new
relationship.
‘It is a moon wrapped in brown paper/It
promises light’
‘It will blind you with tears like a lover/ It
will make your reflection a wobbling
photo of grief’
‘It’s fierce kiss will stay on your lips,
possessive and faithful’
‘Its platinum loops shrink to a wedding
ring, if you like/‘Lethal. Its scent will cling
to your fingers, cling to your knife.’
Storyboard
• Make a card that delivers the message of
‘Valentine’.
• This isn’t an anti-Valentine’s card, remember to
emphasise that it is an individual’s interpretation
of their love and relationship.
• It should contain both visuals and language
from the poem.
Creation
Love is a mobile phone
It is reliable and can be kept close by
It comforts in times of boredom and clears up confusion
It always keeps you entertained
But be careful with it, its casing is delicate
If you damage it, you will lose it
Love is a winter coat
You can snuggle in to it when you need comfort
It wraps around you to keep you warm
And is always there when you feel cold
Don’t take your coat for granted
If it rips, love it even more, don’t trade it in for a new one!
• How did the object seem fresh and exciting with its
association to your real-life experience at the start?
• How did you begin to see the negative aspects of
this experience through the object?
• As time went by, how did your connection to this
object/real experience become stronger? In what
ways did this create negative and positive feelings?
• How do you currently feel about this
object/experience? Can you see the role that it will
play in your future?
Personal connections
• The form of the poem supports its argument
(the ideas in it) as Duffy uses single isolated lines
to show why she rejects the conventional
Valentines: "Not a red rose or a satin heart...Not
a cute card or a kissogram."
• Why not?
• Because each has long ceased to be original
and has been sent millions of times. The
symbolism of roses and hearts is often
overlooked, while cards and kissograms may be
expensive but mean little. As an artist, Ms. Duffy
should be able to think of something more
distinctive, and she does.
Analysis Notes
• Duffy in effect lists reasons why the onion is an
appropriate symbol of love. First, the conventional
romantic symbol of the moon is concealed in it. The
moon is supposed to govern women's passions. The
brown skin is like a paper bag, and the shiny pale
onion within is like the moon. The "light" which it
promises may be both its literal brightness and
metaphorical understanding (of love) or
enlightenment.
• The removing of the papery outer layers suggests
the "undressing" of those who prepare to make love.
There may also be a pun (play on words here) as
"dressing" (such as French dressing or salad dressing)
is often found with onions in the kitchen.
Analysis Notes
• The onion is like a lover because it makes one cry.
The verb "blind" may also suggest the traditional
idea of love's (or Cupid's) being blind. And the
onion reflects a distorted image of anyone who
looks at it, as if this reflection were a "wobbling
photo" - an image which won't keep still, as the
onion takes time to settle on a surface. The flavour
of the onion is persistent, so this taste is like a kiss
which lasts, which introduces the idea of faithfulness
which will match that of the lovers ("possessive and
faithful...for as long as we are").
Analysis Notes
• A different idea about “It will make your
reflection/a wobbling photo of grief”. which,
when I consulted my class, seems to sum up the
female view of the lines, although the boys
couldn't see it straight off. When women cry, for
some reason, they often go to the mirror - so, as
far as the female contingent in my class and I
can see, the lover is blinded with tears and
staring in the mirror (believe me, your reflection
is a wobbling photo of grief in these cases!).
Analysis Notes
• The onion is a series of concentric rings, each
smaller than the other until one finds a ring the
size of a wedding ring ("platinum", because of
the colour). But note the phrase "if you like": the
lover is given the choice. Thus the poem, like a
traditional Valentine, contains a proposal of
marriage. There is also a hint of a threat in the
suggestion that the onion is lethal, as its scent
clings "to your knife". The poet shows how the
knife which cuts the onion is marked with its
scent, as if ready to punish any betrayal.
Analysis Notes
• Note the form of this poem: Duffy writes colloquially (as if
speaking) so single words or phrases work as sentences:
"Here...Take it...Lethal".
• The ends of lines mark pauses, and most of them have a
punctuation mark to show this. The stanza breaks mark
longer pauses, so that we see how the poem is to be
read aloud. The poem appeals to the senses especially
of sight (striking visual images of light, shape and colour),
touch (the "fierce kiss") and smell (the "scent" clinging "to
your fingers" and "knife").
• The poem uses conventional Valentines as a starting
point, before showing how the onion is much more true
to the nature of love.
• The poem seems at first to be rather comical (an onion
as a Valentine is surely bizarre) but in fact is a very serious
analysis of love.
Analysis Notes