Valent

ine“Valentine” is a dubious love poem written by Carol Ann Duffy. Throughout this poem, Duffy compares love to an onion and she does this by using variety of techniques like figurative language, structure and her careful chosen words and sound techniques. These techniques are all used to express her different point of view, verify how love makes one feel and how love is not as simple nor always pleasant, as you think, in fact, it’s complex and harsh.

In the first paragraph, Duffy shows us her point of view by the random structure of her poem. The poem “Valentine” is not a Tanka, not a Haiku, and definitely not a Sonnet. It has a completely random structure. The heading: “Valentine”, it mistakenly leads the readers to think this poem of something typical, something all sweet and lovey-dovey. Then at the exact first line, Duffy surprisingly rejects anything romantic. “Not a red rose or a satin heart.” She refuses this stereo type valentine gifts because it’s so common, and meaningless. She gives an onion as a valentine gift. “I give you an onion.” “It is a moon wrapped in brown paper. It promises light.” Here Duffy is saying that onion is like love, it is promising, its romantic setting representing the truth. Then in the 3rd stanza: “It will blind you with tears” “It will make your reflection a wobbling photo of grief.” This is saying the exactly opposite, love is not all so attractive and charming anymore, it’s gone ugly. Then again Duffy rejected anything romantic. “Not a cute card or a kissogram.” This repetition of rejection exaggerates these gifts are not necessary once you think about the true meaning of love. At the end, Duffy used a one word line: “Lethal.” This adjective conveying the readers love is dangerous and fatal. This poem ending with the negative word: “Knife”. Knife can cut things; it can kill things. It can cut an onion; it can kill a relationship. This definite meaning of the poem portraying that love is not pleasant. In my opinion I think that love is not always a blessing, because love and its results can endure a life time, and if it’s bad results then it might become a curse.

One of Duffy’s main techniques was extended metaphor. Throughout the story Duffy compares love with onion. “It is a moon rapped in brown paper.” The color brown is often a plain, boring color, but if you peel it away and you just might find something worthy inside like a moon. Then again Duffy compares an onion with love. “It will blind you with tears” “It will make your reflection a wobbling photo of grief.” Onions provokes tears while love is meant to bring happiness and joy. Onions have a strong scent that makes us cry when we cut them. Referring to cry over someone you loved. These words all evoke memories of trying to view images through watery eyes, and the sting hurt of the eyes caused by broken hearts. “Take it. Its platinum loop shrink to a wedding-ring, if you like.” On the inside, onions are layered like rings, each getting smaller. The verb ‘shrink’ describes how the layers of the onion get smaller whole ‘loops’ are circles. Circles are eternal: they have no start nor end and represent how love should be. However, the author suggests insecurity by giving the lover an option as if being unsure of one’s feelings: ‘if you like’. This is to express insecurity. I get the feeling that love can bring surprises such as insecurity of lover’s feelings, which in my opinion, makes this a very realistic love-poem.
In the 3rd paragraph, Duffy used lots of figurative language, choice of words and sound techniques. Duffy used sound techniques like sibilance: “Its fierce kiss will stay on your lips, possessive and faithful.” The hissing sound of the repetitive ‘s’ amplifies the times the kiss will stay on your lips. Also at the end Duffy used consonance: “Its scent will cling to your fingers, cling to your knife.” The repeating ‘n’ sound amplifies how the scent will stay with you; cling onto you. Duffy wanted the readers to feel this way so the readers feel scared, frightened. Duffy wanted to warn the readers that love is dangerous. I think the most important line of this poem is “I’m trying to be truthful.” This sentence actually tell us what Duffy is doing, she is telling us that she is telling the truth, telling us the truth that love will never last; that love is dangerous.

In the love-poem, “Valentine” written by Carol Ann Duffy, she expresses her point of view by using variety of Language devices. The extended metaphor thought out the poem explains how love is similar to an onion. The random and complex structure of this poem explains the randomness and complexity of love. Duffy also used sound techniques to portray the sound of love. I was constantly made to think what the real meaning behind love is. I found that “Valentine” has taught me that love is only a fragile feeling that might not last but if it true love, it will last for an eternity with meaning.