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Valentine by Carol Ann Duffy
Notes
Comparison of love to an onion
The onion :
o like a moon wrapped in brown paper
o Its light is hidden
o Positive aspect of love  light onion has light
o Unconventional way of showing love
o Used as an extended metaphor – an image which is carried through the whole poem
Line 4 – ‘It promises light’ – imagery through statement
When the skin of the onion if taken off light is shone  like undressing your lover body =
light, radiant and luminous love becomes these as both lovers are undressed
Line 6 – ‘’Here’ – offering the onion to the lover  enables us to know poem is addressed
directly to lover not an audience
Line 18 – ‘take it’ – linked to line 9
The last single word is on line 21 – ‘lethal’  suggesting love is lethal
The short lines, or monosyllables provide emphasis
Line 7/8 is a simile
Line 9/10 = image – slightly obscure –reflection in your lovers eyes will be wobbly as there
are tears in the eyes of either one of the lover
Line 11 – ‘truthful’ :
o trying to give a realistic image of love, unlike Sonnet 116 which is idealistic
o Making an affirmation of her thoughts
o Emphasis by isolating sentence
Line 12 – telling her lover she is not giving a standard valentine present e.g. a cute card or a
kissogram – she is being realistic, presenting to her lover what love really is. cards aren’t
down to the real substance of a relationship
Line 14 :raw onion to your lip  fierce  burn, just like love  the taste will hang about,
the taste persists just like love does
Line 15/16 – possessive and faithful – the onion remains on the lip – possessive (strong) and
faithful just as they are
Line 17 – ‘as long as we are’ –as long as it lasts
o She knows that love doesn’t last forever – she is accepting of it
o Just like how the strong cling and taste of the onion does stay on your lip forever
Line 18 - ‘take it’ , line 6 – ‘here’ - imperatives (orders) – she is very insistent
She wants the lover to except the onion – as a symbol of excepting her views on their love
Line 21 – - she suddenly tells us the onion is lethal = marriage is lethal  unambiguous
now we know she doesn’t want marriage
Line 22/23 – ‘scent will cling...fingers...knife’  slice an onion – cut up love
o The word ‘cling’ suggests that after cutting up love you are left with guilt

o
o
o

She could be suggesting that she is about to put the knife into their relationship OR
that lover is about to do this
This is ambiguous we don’t know what she is suggesting
The guilt will remain like the scent on a knife

Tone
Not particularly affectionate
Dictatorial and insistent
The rings of the onion shrink  rings of a wedding ring  the platinum loops, like a
platinum ring
she doesn’t sound as though she likes the idea of it, she isn’t fuss though – ‘if you like’
o Very ambiguous
o Could be an off-hand comment
o ‘if’ = conditional
o Maybe she is inviting the wedding or maybe she isn’t affected by it and it doesn’t
bother her if they get married ( we can’t tell, we don’t know how we should
understand this)
There are various tones in the poem. They change from stanza to stanza:
o S1/2 positive
o S3/4 slowly becoming negative – tears
o S5/6 issue of fidelity, an idea what love is really like
o S 7 lastly, suggesting there could be an end to their relationship

Diction
Free verse – reflects condition of life now – chaotic – non-systematic – not controlled
No regular stanzas, or rhythm
No regularity in metre or rhyme scheme
She uses other means to achieve her effects:
o Isolationism – emphasis
o Various tones
o Punctuation is used effectively to get her point across and emphasise
The no regularity and free verse could be a suggestion that there is uncertainty or disorder
within their relationship

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GCSE English Edexcel Relationships: Valentine- Carol Ann Duffy

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