Examine the way Carol Ann Duffy portray a relationship in Valentine.

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Section two: Examine the way Carol Ann Duffy portray a relationship in Valentine.

Valentine is a controversial love poem. Throughout the poem Duffy compares love to an ‘onion’. She uses imagery to justify why valentine is an unusual love poem as they help the poet express her different point of view. The poems title is unusual as it mistakenly leads the reader into thinking that the poem will be typical, because valentine is usually associated with roses and hearts and chocolates. But once reading into the poem the reader gets a shock. In the poem Duffy conveys that love is not simple neither always pleasant.

Duffy uses repetition of negative sentences to express her view to nowadays valentine gifts: “not a red rose or a satin heart”, “not a cute card or a kissogram”. Repetition of these highlights how these gifts are not necessary once you think of the true meaning of love. This portrays the idea that love is not to be taken as a bed of roses, but to accept the thorns we find on the rose.

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The poetess compares the onion to a ‘moon’. The moonlight is the predictable symbol of romance. The onion, described as a moon, throws light on the characters, to discover each other with “the careful undressing of love”. The layers of the onion are like the layers of someone’s personality. Duffy describes that true love is not based on the appearance of someone, but in discovering the true personality of the other.

Throughout the poem, the poetess compares love to an onion. Onions provoke tears while love is meant to bring happiness and joy. Duffy goes on to say “blind ...

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