Valentine (DP IB English A: Language and Literature: HL): Revision Note

This study guide to Carol Ann Duffy’s poem ‘Valentine’ contains:

• Overview

• Authorial purpose

• Authorial choices and textual features

• Themes

• Connections to other Duffy poems

Overview

• The poem was first published in 1993

• It is about the true complexities of love beyond clichés 

• The speaker offers an onion to her lover as an extended metaphor for the truth of love

Authorial purpose

• Duffy’s postmodern work often explores lived realities rather than artificial performances of emotions:

• The poem aims to highlight the true nature of love rather than stereotypical or cliched versions of it

• The poem voices a perspective that is different to the norm, a common feature in Duffy’s work

• It could be argued that the poem critiques consumerist expressions of emotions:

  • Written in a time of economic inequality in Britain, the celebration of a humble onion over expensive clichés is apt

•  The speaker and the lover remain nameless and genderless:

  • As a queer poet writing at a time of homophobia, Duffy offers a vision of love that any reader can immerse themselves in

Authorial choices and textual features

Form 

• ‘Valentine’ is a free verse poem:

  • The lack of a regular rhyme scheme makes the poem feel intimate and fractured, like the emotion at its heart

• The poem is a dramatic monologue or apostrophe to the speaker’s lover

• The poem does not follow a clear form: it has varied stanza and line lengths

• The rhythm is also inconsistent, creating an uneasy and unpredictable mood

Structure

• The title suggests a romantic love poem:

  • But the love here is a complex one that moves beyond traditional notions of love

• The repetition of words and line structures impacts tone:

  • The repetition of ‘it’ and ‘onion’ makes it the unavoidable core of the poem

  • One-word lines and stand-alone lines make the speaker sound domineering

Language

• The onion is an extended metaphor for love:

  • Various features of the onion are explored and linked to the impact of love

• Similes layer this comparison as aspects of the onion’s smell and colour are detailed 

• Traditional symbols of love are juxtaposed with the symbolic onion:

  • The red rose and satin heart seem trite and flimsy in comparison to the speaker’s honest offering

• Duffy uses alliteration and assonance to link concepts: 

  • ‘Fierce’ and ‘faithful’ and ‘ring’ and ‘cling’ suggest love is dangerous and suffocating

Themes

Unfiltered love

Duffy explores truth in everyday experiences and relationships. In ‘Valentine’, she presents a view of love that is unfiltered by niceties or cliches. This love is at times painful and uncomfortable. It surpasses sweetness or easy displays of affection.

Connections to other Duffy poems

When studying Duffy’s poetry, it is important to make connections across her work, as many poems explore similar ideas through different speakers and situations.

Change

Postmodernist poetry is interested in fractured selves, plurality and identity that is not fixed. Duffy frequently explores how the self transforms through life experiences. Duffy often compares a complicated present with a more favourable past. The past becomes a place longed for. Frequently, the loss of youth is paired with a loss of beauty, joy or love. However, she complicates this by presenting her changed speakers as more full of knowledge and understanding of themselves; change in Duffy’s poetry is sometimes painful but also empowering.  Here, love is transformative.

Sources:

‘Valentine’ by Carol Ann Duffy (https://www.scottishpoetrylibrary.org.uk/poem/valentine/ (opens in a new tab))