Explain How Duffy Expresses Her Idea in Valentine.

‘Valentine’ by Carol Ann Duffy is one of the most profound love poems in the world, with a strong message to all readers. The general idea that Duffy is trying to get across to us is how the gifts given at Valentine has no real meaning of true love. She uses many different techniques and figurative language to express her message. Evidently, there is no specific pattern of rhythm and rhyme, so therefore we can conclude that this poem is written in free verse. This highlights the fact that love has no order or pattern. Throughout ‘Valentine,’ we not only receive how ignorant we are when it comes to love, but also love is an emotion with two separate sides, we can experience both happiness, and grief.

Duffy introduces her famous love poem with a short sentence as her first stanza to create more of an impact, and to catch our attention. The use of the onion, a dull household object as an extended metaphour for love makes the reader more attentive to the poem, which forces us to read. Duffy starts with the adverb “Not,” portrays the sense of confidence in rejecting the traditional symbols of love, due to the fact it being the first word of the whole poem. In addition, Duffy further carries on how a “red rose” is meaningless. Expressing that it is not what you give, but the thought behind the gift that counts. Utilizing the technique of contradiction between the connotations of the title ‘Valentine,’ with a negative opening line further reinforces her idea of true love, and how it is so different with our idea. She refers the onion as a moon being “wrapped in brown paper,” this metaphour is fortifying the concept that we must not judge things by what meets the eye, rather by the qualities that you cannot see. Moreover, in her perspective, the onion “promise light.” The use of the personification here depicts the image that the moon guarantees light, however it may not always reflect back to the amount you were hoping for, like love. Duffy has crafted the idea of love is not always accepted, but can also be rejected and turned away. Duffy has revealed many ideas about how the onion is a more preferable gift rather than the stereotypical gifts given at valentine without any thought. She wants us to re-think about the presents that we provide to our lovers, and by extension wants us to ponder over the true meaning of love that lies beneath the heart.

As the poem progresses, Duffy explains how the burning properties of the onion are similar to the pain that we receive form unrequited love, and rejected love. She links the idea of how love can “blind you with tears,” because of insensitive lovers causing us to feel emotional pain. Being blinded proposes the idea of not being able to see straight, and the tears representing sadness and grief. So therefore, Duffy tries to explain how love can cause us to be depressed, blinding the happiness in our lives. Additionally, using unusual verbs and adjectives that we wouldn’t expect in a love poem, like “wobbling” and “grief,” Duffy points out that love isn’t always pretty and joyful, it can also be unpleasant to the hearts of humans. There is an echo of the double alliteration between “red rose” and “cute card,” this is used to achieve easier remembrance and to further accentuates that the cliché valentine gifts lacks thinking on what love actually is. In ‘valentine’, simple words avail Duffy to achieve that love blinds you to what actually is important in life; it can cause more complications.

Finally, Duffy has expressed her most important idea about love, and how it is similar to an onion; this is why the last stanza is the most significant. Duffy uses a sinister adjective “Lethal” to be placed alone to highlight how dangerous love can be to us. The onion “scent,” symbolizes the memories about the relationship causing us to fall in a state of despair, when we cut the onion. Duffy has again used a negative verb “cling,” to give a perception of desperateness and never letting go, due to its connotations to stick and to hold on to. Therefore, the painful experience of separations will be an everlasting smell “to your fingers.” The readers can now deduce that true love is hard to forget and overcome. Duffy has mentioned the noun “knife” in the last word of the poem, suggesting that it is notable. A knife is sharp and can be used to hurt others; Duffy uses this concept, by explaining how our heart is a knife, because we can hurt people’s emotions. So, the memories of ending the relationship will still be there and never leave our minds. Duffy illustrates that the presents given at Valentine available only shows one side of love, while ignoring the more negative side. This can further relate to how everything in the world has it’s positives and negatives. Duffy has created the final stanza to create an image of how our heart is the deadliest weapon in our bodies.

Carol Ann Duffy’s ‘Valentine’ explores how our ideas of love lack thinking and understanding on what love actually is. Throughout her short and impactive poem, we learn many things and realize that this is true. Duffy criticizes us, and our tendency to buy and give presents that are pleasing to the eye, rather than gifts that has an inner meaning. Using many different language techniques, she has indicated her personal opinions about love throughout ‘Valentine’ by referring it to an onion.