‘Like the careful undressing of love’, this and the line before (in the poem) have some normal delicacy in the way of romance. It shows the association of love with light. In this line it is apparent that Duffy is saying that love is always present as both an emotional and physical experience. The delicacy will develop and change in the third stanza, as the ‘careful undressing’ will have become a ‘fierce kiss’.
In the second verse Duffy uses of the word ‘Here’ to make the reader feel that the poet is in control. As it is a one word line and sentence it makes the reader feel uncomfortable as it sounds and seems forceful. She continues with the second main point and a metaphor ‘It will blind you with tears‘. This metaphor is the most likely to be obvious as not only do onions make you cry, the pain caused by a loved one has the same effect. The simile, ‘Like a lover’ contributes to the same view as love distorts one’s vision as is proposed by, ‘a wobbling photo of grief’, the photo wobbles because it is seen through tears. The pain can make someone pungent and disillusioned. The space between the end of this verse and the next line gives the reader time to reflect upon this part of the poem. Duffy explains that she does not mean to be unkind, through, ‘I am trying to be truthful’, alliteration and the repetition of the ‘t’ sound gives it a sense of sincerity.
The next line, ‘Not a cute card or a kissogram’ shows that the poet does not approve of the usual tokens of love and it also allows the poem to become intense and hard once again. Like the first line in the poem Duffy has written about what has not been given, this itself is another form of repetition and lets her to structure her poem.
The third stanza starts off in the same way as the first- ‘I give you an onion’, she again uses a metaphor and it is the new beginning of adverse truths about love.
The next line, ‘its fierce kiss will stay on your lips’ is the third main comparison in the poem. The bitter taste of an onion is compared to the pure intensity of love. Duffy is saying that the pungent taste will stay on someone’s lips. A memory of a kiss can also stay with someone forever; it shakes the vividness of the memories produced by an experience of love.
‘Possessiveness and faithful as we are, as long as we are’ suggests that love affairs only last for the time that two people are interested in each other, love is intense but its period is doubtful. Duffy has purposely ‘played’ with words as one of the terms is normally taken cynically (‘possessive’) and the other is usually taken as an admirable characteristic.
The giver of the gift insists that the receiver accepts the gift, ‘Take it’. She condemns marriage. The fifth comparison is when she compares the loops of an onion to a wedding ring by saying the onion ring is shiny and light (‘platinum’). She connects this with the fact that love and passion can shrink and deaden. This is indicated through the word- ’shrink’.
‘If you like’ suggests an order that can not be argued with, it is a short phrase that puzzles the reader as to what Duffy is really saying. Throughout the poem Duffy has been ordering the gift to be taken. However the end to this particular sentence shows less force and the person feels inclined to take it.
By saying ‘Lethal’ the readers come to realise that marriage is lethal in her opinion. In the next metaphor Duffy expresses her feelings stating that sometimes people never recover from romance. People will continue to experience pain and heartache. ‘Its scent will cling to your fingertips, cling to your knife’, the repetition of the word ‘cling’ is effective in the way that it remains in the readers’ minds, it also suggest a kind if unavoidability and a sense of desperation. This is the fifth point of the comparison between an onion and love. The use of the word ‘fingers’ suggests an inescapable memory and physical connection. The last part of the above quotation, ‘Cling to your knife’ seems almost like a threat with the way it is presented after a pause. However Duffy has again played with words. A knife would usually be associated with an onion, as a knife is a kitchen utility but in association to love it seems like a dangerous object, as it may seem that a knife might become a weapon for a jealous lover. Duffy also suggests that love has an ability to damage and hurt others. The last line can also give the impression that the poet has obviously been hurt in a previous relationship and the pain brought by it has not yet left her and feels like a wound.
Throughout the poem Duffy compares love to an onion. The appropriate imagery and ideas of an onion and love have been used to convey a completely different image of love and romance. Valentine is a different poem to traditional Valentine poems and adds a different angle to people’s perception and is well contrasted to the conventional romantic sweetness of love. After reading this poem the reader will never view love in the same way as they had done and that is exactly what Carol Ann Duffy wanted. As mentioned before the poet was challenging the whole conception of love.
The second poem I looked at was War Photographer. War Photographer is a poem based upon a photographer working for a newspaper and is a recorder of the truth and unlike other people has a conscience. It shows the contrast between ‘Rural England’ and place torn apart with war. The photographer belongs to both worlds but does not seem to fit into either. This is a poem based on Duffy’s ideas of war and society. Duffy implies that the society of that time were gob smacked over the atrocities caused by war for only a few moments and then went on with their lives. It seemed that the war did not have an impact on people living in England- they were ignorant of what the war photographs. She is looking at it from her point of view but through the photographer’s eyes. In this poem Duffy is also trying to show that the photographer is effected by his work and what he sees- it seems like he is the only one who knows about the hardships of war.
The structure of the poem is in standard stanzas and each ends with a rhyming couplet, as if to conclude an argument. Duffy makes a series of observations linked to a clear conclusion.
The poem is in quite a traditional form compared to some of Duffy’s other poems. For the rhyme scheme is the same in each stanza. There are rhyming couplets at the end of the second and third lines and at the end of each stanza (on the fifth and sixth lines).
The key images that Duffy uses are that, she compares the photographer to a priest, the difference between his life and the life of others and the effect that war has on him in the aftermath.
In this poem Duffy uses a lot of ambiguity, for example: ‘solutions’, ‘ghost’ and ‘black and white’. The poet is trying to show that although the plot is developing by these words and ideas the vocabulary has alternative ideas. For example when Duffy says, 'Solutions slop in trays' the immediate idea of solutions is the solution for the photos to develop but after looking at it more closely we come to understand that the solutions represent the answers to the problems.
This poem is written in the third person. The subject of the poem is a war photographer as the title suggests but in depth it considers the difference between ‘Rural England’ and places where wars were fought (Northern Ireland, Lebanon and Cambodia).
In the first verse we are introduced to the subject of the poem. The photographer is an outsider as the poem says, ‘alone, with spools of suffering’ who moves between worlds but is comfortable with neither. Duffy adds alliteration by saying ‘spools of suffering’. The ‘ordered rows’ of film spools may suggest how the photographer brings order to what he records. The photographer’s darkroom appears to be a sanctuary where he can be alone and gather his thoughts, like as though he was in a church. The red light is the infrared light in the darkroom but can also be associated with the coloured lantern in the church. We can see from, ‘as though this were a church and he a priest’ that the photographer is being compared to priest as he takes his job very seriously, and how he stands up for those who cannot help themselves. His darkroom is being compared to a church. The last line is made up from a series of one-word sentences. This is deliberately done to make these words echo in the readers’ minds. The words ‘Belfast. Beirut. Phnom Penh.’ are names of cities that have been plagued with wars and suffering. The end of the line is a Biblical quotation; ‘All flesh is grass’. It is taken from the Old Testament- from Isaiah. Isaiah compares the shortness of human life with eternal religious truths. In the poem, the sentence follows a list of names. These are places where life is much shorter than normal, because of wars.
The first stanza is setting the scene to introduce the rest of the poem and make the reader aware of what the poem is about. The second stanza tells the reader of the photographer’s emotions. We see his true feelings and what he is really like. The beginning statement is, ‘He has a job to do’ this sounds like a strong empowering sentence although it is plain. This is because it has no emotion in it. We as readers want to read on as the sentence does not reveal everything and thus more information needs to be gained. The nest part of that line tells us that the photographer is developing the negatives. ‘Solutions slop in trays’ this is another example of Carol Ann Duffy using double meanings, for the quotation could also mean that the problems finally have an answer.
This stanza contrasts the photographer’s calmness when taking pictures with his attitude as he develops them. If his hands shook when he took the picture, they would not be very good, but in the darkroom (where he is alone) he can express his feelings and allow his hands to tremble. Duffy then goes on to state the differences between England and the countries abroad. ‘Home again to ordinary pain, which simple weather can dispel’ brings up questions as to whether there can be ordinary pain and it makes us think of what pain really is.
Duffy also compares the fields of England with those abroad- it is like the poet wants us to think that the fields are unusual compared to minefields. The image of a mine exploding under someone’s feet is shocking to the photographer (and to us the reader) as he thinks of land mines exploding under ’the feet of running children’ and not soldiers. It makes the reader feel at unease because one would never think of risking the lives of children, however this seems to be the everyday reality that people face in these war torn countries. At the beginning of the third stanza we are desperate to find out about the rest of the poem. This is due to the first sentence in this verse, ‘What is happening’ this adds a sense of mystery and is very dramatic, we expect something bad but later we realise that the photo is developing. The next sentence in the poem tells the reader that the figure is transforming slowly. However it could be that the photo was not developing at all but the photographer was remembering a ‘stranger’s features’. The word ‘Ghost’ is ambiguous, it begins to show a picture of a man but it cannot be seen properly, it seems to the photographer that as the photo is coming to life so is the man, however the man is dead. Although this event has gone by the photo brings back memories of the man’s wife crying. ‘How he sought approval without words’ tells us that the photographer was not able to ask permission to take the picture. But he knows that he must do this so that he can inform people of the disaster and tragedies occurring and lay forward the evidence. The photographer feels that the wife must approve of his recording the event while the blood stains ‘into foreign dust’. When Duffy says ‘A hundred agonies in black and white’ she refers to the newspaper, which is full of stories of disasters and pictures showing pain, but nobody really cares about them. The words ‘In black and white’ are ambiguous as they suggest the dull pictures and font yet they are telling the truth in the simplest way. The photographer has taken about hundred images, which are only a small sample of what has happened; yet the editor will pick out a handful to print out. From the sentence, ‘The reader’s eyeballs prick with tears between the bath and pre- lunch beers’ we are told that the readers will feel some sympathy but that will only last for a few moments. We can understand what the society of that time was like better as the editor only picked the pictures that would catch the readers’ attention not according to what they were implying. We also understand that people’s attitude towards war was only affected slightly but then they would feel that it was not part of their lives. The poem finally ends with the photographer going to another country where war has broken out. Duffy imagines the photographer looking down from an aeroplane at England. She then says, ‘where he earns his living and they do not care’ meaning that he is paid to take pictures of dying people and although people look at them at are touched by them they choose to do nothing.
In this poem Carol Ann Duffy uses the experience of the photographer to bring forward her own opinions. The main view being that people who live in England live comfortable and happy lives while others live in poverty and suffering, and when we have the chance to help them we do not. We can clearly see what is happening to them yet we sit back and keep quiet. She portrays the photographer as both a priest and journalist. In connection to a church Duffy shows that the response of those who read the Sunday paper is like their response in church. For some moments they sit there in utter silence reminded of the suffering of others but soon afterwards our minds our diverted. The third poem Prayer is based upon a religious idea, saying that ‘we’, everyone in the world is faithless, yet we still experience emotions of faith. The poem looks like it follows a religious feeling, but there is never any strong or obvious force of religion. In today’s society it is not necessary to belong to a faith, however people still have a desire to pray (as is stated in the poem). Throughout the poem we notice a sense of loss. Everybody mentioned in the poem seems to have lost someone. It could be that Duffy is remembering her childhood and in her childhood she may have experienced a loss that she remembers in the distance as is always suggested in the poem.
Throughout the poem Duffy uses very precise and vivid imagery. The vocabulary helps the reader to imagine the events taking place and there is always a sense of music in all of the verses. In the first verse we are told of the minims sung by a tree. In the second stanza there is the music of the train and in the third there are the piano scales being played.
Duffy looks very closely at the patterns in our everyday life and does not say that everything is full of happiness.
The poem can be founded upon the sounds that are heard: ‘(the minims sung...the chanting of a train... piano scales... someone calls a child’s name.... the radio’s prayer‘. This helps the reader to have a clear image of what is being seen or heard.
Throughout the poem the reader thinks that a prayer is usually sent rather then it being received. The poem does not state where that prayer has come from but the reader assumes that it is from God. Until the end.
Duffy uses regular form of quatrains. The reader is in questioning throughout the poem except at the end of the third verse. It seems like Duffy has concluded the poem. But in the last line that is not part of the third stanza but stands on is own another question is brought up and the sentence is left open for the reader to make their own decision. The reader seems confused by ‘Darkness outside. Inside, the radio's prayer-
The poem has no rhyme but a lot of pauses to make the reader reflect on what they have read.
The first stanza of this poem is about a prayer being said even though one cannot pray. Therefore a woman will look up at a tree and a prayer comes to her mind.
The first part of this verse is, ‘Some days’; Duffy has used these words particularly as there is no indication of the time (for how many days). The prayer itself just happens, it cannot be planned and no one has wanted it to happen.
The next part of the sentence makes the reader begin to question, as the poet says, ‘although we cannot pray a prayer utters itself’. We wonder why ‘we’ cannot pray. The possibility can only be assumed for we are not given an explanation anywhere in the poem. I feel that this was a good sentence as it makes the reader alert and they expect to find out later in the poem.
There is some sense of obedience when Duffy says ‘Utters itself’, the poet does not say ‘we pray’ but it seems that the prayer just occurs and happens by itself, without us willing it.
From the following sentence we can accurately imagine a sieve. ‘The sieve of her hands’. Up till this point the poem has been generalised by the word ‘we’ but now it has become a topic on a woman. The word sieve in this context refers to the woman being intercepted, but it also suggests that the woman tries to block what she sees or experiences. It seems like as though it was out of desperation, for why else would she shade her eyes. Through this action the poem gives a sense that there is a moment of sadness, this could be due to the prayer. However it appears that the woman does not feel like she should have prayed or is mixed between religions. ‘The minims sung by a tree’ means that the birds were singing in a tree but against the sky they seem like blobs. Therefore the use of the word minims helps to describe a blob, as it is a black musical note. The branches of the tree appear to be like the lines on paper. In some ways it appears that the fact that the birds are singing on branches that forms a piece of paper and look like musical notes there is a hidden image of the music.
The last part of the stanza suggests that the woman has a gift to see birds that produce music as musical notes and portray nature in a different way. The second verse begins with, ‘Some nights’. In this verse we see a difference from the first verse, there has been a change in the time. So as the poem continues so does the day.
Once again there is a generalisation when Duffy says, ‘we are faithless’, and another question comes to the reader’s mind, “Well how are we faithless?” In relation to this poem it means that ‘we’ have an absence in religion. But overall it can mean that we are not faithful to one another and then it becomes apparent that the people mentioned in the poem are isolated and that there only means of contact is through noises (which are heard in a distance). Duffy is also making a point that people although distracted by other things, seem to still feel the truth in their hearts so maybe it is present there all the time.
‘That small familiar pain’ links everyone up and the poem shows that everyday someone is sad and it is a part of our everyday lives.
In this verse the character changes at first it was a woman now it is a man. The beginnings of both stanzas seem quite similar with the change if development. It appears that there is some order in such a poem that already has unanswered questions and uncertain suggestions. The last part of this verse ‘In the distant Latin chanting of a train’ makes the reader wonder why the train is chanting in Latin. The Latin could be associated with the Bible, as it was first written in the Latin. It could also be that as the man is recalling his childhood, he considers the faith he had when he was a child. He could be remembering the chanting in a Roman Catholic Church. The sound of the train brings back memories from childhood to the man.
In the poem the words, ‘Hearing his youth in the distant Latin chanting of a train’ have a space between them. This comes between ‘Hearing his youth’ and the rest of the sentence. I think this is intended as it also suggests a distance in time, from the thought of being a man to the thought of remembering his childhood.
In the third stanza Duffy says, ‘Pray for us now. Grade 1 piano scales console the lodger looking out across a Midlands town. Then dusk, and someone calls a child’s name as though they named their loss.’
From this we as readers find a conclusion to the poem. This stanza is telling us who or what part the characters play in the idea of ‘praying‘, although it does not give any specific mention to these people. However we are able to link the people in the last stanza to the other stanzas, due to the information gained from the other stanzas.
The woman in the first verse is a lodger who is reminded of someone by the music played in the tree. The man in the second stanza has lost a child and is calling out his name. It seems that their loved one is asking them to pray ‘Pray for us now‘. The readers would not know who is ‘us’ but it would be assumed (by the next few lines) that the person(s) saying this are related to the characters. However it could also be that the characters in the poem are asking for forgiveness or want to be with their loved ones.
After answering our questions its as though Duffy does not want her reader to be satisfied and have the answer as she makes the reader start to question again in the last line, ‘Darkness outside. Inside, the radio’s prayer-’. The first sentence can be translated as the fact that the poem spoke of day turning to dusk so now in this new development it is probably night. However it could also mean that outside in the world nobody prays so it becomes dark and there is no light to guide anyone or ‘outside’. This could be translated as then external part of our bodies, which indicate sadness. The short sentence helps the reader to understand and decide upon the three ideas. But the reader then becomes puzzled by the next phrase; ‘Inside, the radio’s prayer’ they have to think for a while and the poem has to be re-read for any clues. By this phrase Duffy perhaps relates ‘inside’ to our souls and the radio to an automatic device (which forms part of us) and in turn it becomes tuned to force us to pray beyond our intentions. The fact that she leaves the sentence open means that she wants her readers to make their own decision and come to some conclusion. But in terms of where the sound is coming from I think Duffy is talking of a shipping forecast. I like all three of these poems as they are different in terms of subject, the point Duffy is trying to get across and they have different meanings to them. In my opinion none of the poems are similar. Valentine is a poem based on love and the realities of love. War photographer is a poem based on war and somebody's feelings towards it and Prayer is a poem based on religion and people's feelings. However all three poems have a serious tone to them. Valentine talks of the fact that love should be taken seriously, War Photographer shows the seriousness of war and Prayer talks of the sadness in people's hearts. I think that Valentine and Prayer are poems written from Duffy's experience so the poems are more personnel however War Photographer is based on somebody's job and what they see, although the other two poems are written involving others. In Valentine, Prayer and War Photographer Duffy uses a double meaning for some words and thus has used her vocabulary effectively. She conveys her ideas clearly and concisely and often makes the reader reflect on the poems and think of their opinions and whether or not they agree with Duffy.
