valentine Flashcards
what are the themes of valentine?
power, love and man
“I give you an onion.”
Statement - showing that love can be reduced to mundane everyday items not just the stereotypical flowers and chocolates. Love is real and causes more than just happy emotions.
“It will blind you with tears/ like a lover.”
Simile – to show that the scent of the onion can make you cry in the same way that a relationship has that power.
“Its fierce kiss will stay on your lips, / possessive and faithful”
Metaphor – literally the onions flavour or metaphorically the relationships kiss suggesting it is always there clinging to you and a part of you when you are in it.
“Lethal.”
Single sentence line – reinforcing the pain that can be caused unknowingly in a relationship.
“Its scent will cling to your fingers,/cling to your knife.”
Repetition – like the scent of the onion once you’ve had love it sticks with you.
what is valentine about?
The persona in the poem gives their lover an unconventional Valentine’s Day gift of an onion, rejecting the clichés normally associated with the day such as red roses. They explore why the onion is a more suitable and realistic expression of their love: it is a moon, it is promises light and hope, it can make you cry, it is powerful and intense and its scent can linger on you indefinitely. Ultimately, it highlights the negative as well as the positive effects of a deep and loving relationship. The forceful presentation of this gift, and the final word choice, also suggests this is a relationship which is cruel, domineering and menacing.
