Valentine Flashcards
Introduction
Duffy uses the poem as a vehicle to challenge the idealistic and unrealistic portrayals of love as perfect or eternal. She distorts the convention of romantic notions of love associated with Valentine’s Day, in order to criticise the performative nature of gift giving and the commercialisation of the holiday. Despite what we are socially contended to believe Duffy presents love as messy and complicated, with pain and suffering, an inevitable and inescapable part of the experience of love.
Not a red rose or a satin heart
Rejects cliched gifts commonly associated with Valentine’s Day. Red rose alliteration makes traditional symbol titre and unoriginal
I give you an onion
Through the onion she alludes to the complex and multifaceted nature of relationships, which like onions have many layers. However opinions and bitter and make people cry, alluding to the more destructive and devastating part of love.
Moon wrapped in brown paper
She elevated the onion to that of a grand romantic gesture, to challenge the performative nature of Valentine’s Day.
It promises light
The moon doesn’t generate light but it merely reflects that of the sun, rendering this promise impossible to fulfil. Perhaps through this she is alluding to the false promises of love in relationships that they cannot keep, while implying grand romantic gestures are performative and insincere.
It will blind you with tears like a lover
Love can distort the vision of reality, use of enjambment shocks the reader as the one person you expect to provide love and support provides sorrow, through this she alludes to the way life results in pain and suffering
It will make your reflection a wobbling photo of grief
She implies that love can lead to a loss of identity, whereby own reflection is rendered unrecognisable, “wobbling” creates a sense of instability, implying love means losing control.
I am trying to be truthful
She claims the poem is an attempt to be truthful and express her genuine feelings - even if her account of love is unsavoury, which implies that love in media is a facade, lacking sincerity and authenticity
It’s fierce kiss will stay on your lips, possessive
She distorts an act of passion and makes it sound aggressive and controlling.
Which is further reiterated by the verb possessive. She presents love as a destructive and dangerous force which leads to obsession and insecurity
As we are, for as long as we are.
She makes it clear that she believes relationships are temporary. She rewrites marriage vowels emphasising her cynicism of lifelong commitment this is reflected in her personal experience of love, with Adrian Henri with whom she had a she had a 12 years relationship but she describes as never faithful
It will Cling to your fingers cling to your knife
The repetition of the verb cling implies love can make you dependent on someone else and difficult to pass and let go once as when its course. Knife hints to violence in toxic relationships.
