A comparison of the two poems, "Valentine" by Carol Ann Duffy, and "The Sunne Rising" by John Donne, exploring images, links and comparisons.

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Sally Bryan 10B2                                                                     9th May 2004     

  • A comparison of the two poems, “Valentine” by Carol Ann Duffy, and “The Sunne Rising” by John Donne, exploring images, links and comparisons.

Both poems talk about the same subject, which is love, but in contrary they are very different. Each poem uses strange imagery, in Donne’s poem he personifies the sun, he addresses it,

“Busie old foole, unruly Sunne,

Why dost thou thus.”

He also uses a capital letter for the sun to give an impression of importance. In Duffy’s poem, she uses an onion as a symbol of her love. They both reject the traditional aspects of love, but they also show great tenderness and feeling. “Valentine” is a modern poem, whereas “The Sunne Rising” is a pre 1900 poem. They mutually challenge the traditional love poetry,

“Not a red rose or a satin heart.”

“Valentine” is written in a series of disjointed lines, while “The Sunne Rising” is written in separate verses. They are both written in first person.

In “Valentine”, Duffy rejects all the traditional aspects of love. She uses strange imagery to try and put her views forward. The poet does not use a rhyming scheme. “The Sunne Rising”, however, does encompass a rhyming scheme, Donne uses rhyming couplets. Another way in which the poems contrast each other is the use of language. We can read “Valentine”, and understand the dialogue without difficulty.  “The Sunne Rising”, however is considerably harder to comprehend due to the pre 1900 dialogue. The poem was written in Shakespearean times. Duffy uses direct speech in her poem,

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“I give you an onion.”

 She use this onion is used as a metaphor for her love. This statement is repeated twice throughout the poem along with the modern valentine images which she opens the poem with,

“Not a red rose or a satin heart.”

 Donne use the image of light, as does Duffy,

“It is a moon wrapped in brown paper.

It promises light.”

Donne’s poem talks about the sun throughout. This is another way in which the poems are similar, because they both talk about natural light, the sun and the moon. “Valentine” and “The Sunne Rising” also ...

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