Valentine

By Carol Ann Duffy

Carol Ann Duffy was born in Glasgow. She grew up in a working class family that believed in social change and the politics of protest

One of her schoolteachers encouraged her to write poetry. So she published her first poems at sixteen

Duffy attended university in Liverpool

Then she lived in London for 15 years and now lives near Manchester

Carol Ann Duffy works as a lecturer in poetry

Duffy likes to challenge normal views with new ideas and approaches

Carol Ann Duffy

Other Poems : Stealing'War Photographer‘‘Before You Were Mine’

Duffy changes the roses to an onion. The poem is not about the onion, about the

love, honest. She is talking personally to the reader.

Bullet points about the poem.

The poet views love as healthy so long as it avoids both tacky romance and marriage. No rhyme in the poem but sound like a message to a lover

About the poem

When was the poem published? Who wrote the poem? What was the untraditional symbol of the

love she used? Where was Carol Ann Duffy Born?

Check your knowledge

Not a red rose or a satin heart.

I give you an onion.It is a moon wrapped in brown paper.It promises lightlike the careful undressing of love.

Here It will blind you with tears like a lover.It will make your reflectiona wobbling photo of grief.

I am trying to be truthful.

Not a cute card or a kissogram.

I give you an onion.Its fierce kiss will stay on your lips,possessive and faithfulas 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.

The Poem

Words used in this poem to explain love: Fierce Grief Lethal Blind Possessive Shrink

Language

Not a red rose or a satin heart.

I give you an onion.It is a moon wrapped in brown paper.It promises lightlike the careful undressing of love.

Explanation of the poem 1.

Traditional but unoriginal Valentine gifts. Unromantic!

Very untraditional valentine gift! But her symbol for love. The image of the onion is an extended metaphor throughout the poem.

‘wrapped’ like a gift.

Peeling an onion like lovers undressing.

Here It will blind you with tears like a lover.It will make your reflectiona wobbling photo of grief.

Explanation of the poem 2.Passing the gift (onion) to her lover

Onion make you cry and so can love (happy and sad tears). Crying makes things ‘wobbly’. Moments in love can make you wobble too.

I am trying to be truthful.

Not a cute card or a kissogram.

Explanition of the poem 3.

Alliteration

You have to be honest to make relationships work

Again, commercial but unoriginal Valentine Gifts

Alliteration

I give you an onion.Its fierce kiss will stay on your lips,possessive and faithfulas we are,for as long as we are.

Explanation of the poem 4.

Like ‘I give you this ring’

The taste of an onion lingers, so does a memory of a kiss.

Like a relationship, the length is tats .

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.

Explanation of the poem 5.

The poet thinks that marriage can run a relationship, maybe she had a bad experience? Painful, deadly words. Hurt can fling to you

More demanding now.