Valentine- D Flashcards
Valentine about
-A bit of sweet metaphysical poem
-Suggesting an alternative to the Cliché valentine offerings
-The gift here instead of a letter is an onion which Duffy dissect for its symbolic significance matching its qualities to the symptoms and effects of being in love
-It’s in free verse
-The verity of line length some only a single word create a somewhat forceful tone, also reflecting the poets hesitation, but also that love isn’t perfect, At odds with the occasion which is apparently commemorating.
-Like an onion, it’s astringent and punchy
“ red rose or satin heart” “give..an onion”
Stands by itself, declaring what she will not give as a valentine the traditional…
-Is the central metaphysical conceit
-The line reveals what she will give the opposite of the expected as onions are neither pleasant smelling nor decorative
-She sees it however as a symbolic of love as much as or more than the conventional tokens
-The alliteration of red rose is gutter roll almost like a growl and lends the line a harsh tone
“ it’s a moon wrapped in brown paper”
Onions have a brown paper skin which when removed reveals as white the colour of the moon
- A metaphor making it seem somewhat special
- builds the conceit as love as an onion
-it suggests that love is not always as it seems and it must be unwrapped to be enjoyed
“ Like the careful undressing of love”
-similie
-She imagines removing the outer casing like undressing lover to reveal the underlying beauty
-Makes peeling an onion sound unexpectedly sensual
-The end stops allow the speaker to state these metaphor as plain facts
-It gives these metaphor force and credibility without the need for my new details or elaborate language
-The euphony and sibilance makes the speakers language gentle and smooth and pleasant
‘Like a lover” “Blind with tears” “ wobbling photo grief”
Because onions make you cry when you peel them as a lover will if he leaves or is unkind
- Looking in a mirror, your reflection will be wobbly because it’s distorted by tears
-simile
-The pain and agony of love can distort peoples visions of their very selves
“ not Cute cards and telegrams”
Blunt
-Anaphora w
She said she’s not doing this to be unkind, but to be honest about the nature of love
-These are shams
-The K sounds suggest the speakers distain for the showy yet shallow expressions of love
“Taste” “ it’s feirce kiss will stay on your lips”
-The the kiss of the onion will linger
-Reminding them of each other and binding them together in shared taste for as long as they are together
-Assertive has a violent undertone
-onions are not notorious with their pungent scent
-Here and onions ability to ling on one’s lips is precisely what makes a good expression of love
“ take it” “ platinum loops shrink to a wedding ring”
-She urges her lover too…
- It’s very forceful she’s forcing the gift upon him. It’s an imperative.
- The loops are the rings of the onion offered to her as a wedding ring if she wants it
-The sharp sounds of the tea make the phrase seem harsh, consistent
-May make readers start to wonder how healthy or required that this is
-The metaphor describing the rings of loops that shrink to a wedding ring doesn’t seem all that romantic
-Shrink implies restriction and diminishment
-Marriage here seems something that limits a partner freedoms
“Lethal”
The single word is a warning that love and marriage can be both a blessing and a hell, destructive
-Love in other words is something deadly
-It leaves the reader with graphic representations of love destructive power
-Coming after the line about a wedding ring, this is an ominous idea of love
-Traditional marriage here doesn’t seem all that appealing
“ Cling to your fingers” “ cling to your knife”
The smell of the onion will cling to you, unlike all the love tokens whether you choose to continue loving” fingers “ or destroy it” knife”
-asyndeton ( lack of conjunctive after fingers)
-it makes these lines more forceful
-Once you slice into an onion or accept the speakers love it’s extremely difficult to get rid of either
- The poem ends on a dark intense note suggesting the power and intensity and perhaps the danger of love
Context
Suggest an alternative to the Cliché valentine’s offerings of the over commercialised saints day
-saint Valentine was a Christian Marter executed for helping Christian soldiers during the Roman empire
-He’s credited with performing a miracle on the daughter of his jailer curing her blindness
- The legend relates that on the night before his execution he wrote a note to the girl the start the tradition sending notes from your Valentine.
- Duffy was heavily inspired by the 17th century metaphysical poets
-It’s written in the form of the metaphysical Renaissance poems like John donne who compared love to something insignificant like a flea- a conceit
She wrote Valentine after a radio producer asked her to write an original poem for Saint Valentine’s Day
-duffy’s pension for humour and plain language our qualities she shares with the Liverpool poets a group of writers in the 1960s who wanted to make poetry more accessible-Duffy live with a key figure of the movement painter and poet Adrian Henri
Rhyme scheme
Has no rhyming scheme implying that love is unpredictable
-The layer of the poem itself is like an onion metaphorically reflecting going deep into a relationship
-The end stops that punctuate the opening statements make the speaker come across as a direct and confident the speaker resist the flowery language usually associated with love poems and greeting cards
“It promises light”
Why is a common symbol of truth in clarity? This simile suggests that the barriers to intimacy whether physical or emotional must be torn down to achieve true love?
-The personification of the union casts it as a well meaning love here
“Here”
It’s a blunt command
-Comes across harsh or forceful
-Perhaps the poets lover is resistant to taking the onion or perhaps the poet is simply insisting on the onions validity as a symbol of romance
“ I am trying to be truthful”
It’s as though the speaker has sent their lovers resistance and he reiterating why an onion makes a better gift than a cute card or kissogram
-To the speaker the onion is a much true representation of love than either of those comparatively shallow gifts
The crisp alliteration of the tea sound suggests the speaker is extremely careful and thoughtful with their words
‘Kiss” “possessive” “lips”
The slut rhymes draws attention to the image of the onion maximising its force
