In my essay, I have decided to compare two of Carol Ann Duffy's poems, Valentine and Stealing.

    Valentine is set out in an unusual form it’s written more for impact than presentation. She uses single words like “Take it” for a forceful feel. This isn’t a sentimental poem it’s a poem about possessive, fierce love.

    Stealing is a poem about ruthlessness and cold heartedness. It starts like someone has just asked him a question about what is the most unusual thing he has ever stolen and he gives the answer “a snowman.” He goes on to talk about why he stole the snowman. He steals the snowman because he thought it was magnificent and selfishly wanted it for himself. Part of the fun of taking the snowman was knowing that in the morning the children who he had stolen the snowman from would cry. Blatant cruelty on purpose to try and hurt the children. The next sentence “Life’s tough” indicates that maybe life has been tough on him. Once he started taking the snowman he couldn’t stop, he didn’t want to admit failure. In the poem, once he’s got the snowman back to his own yard he doesn’t like it anymore so he demolishes it by kicked it. This sounds like the actions of someone who’s deeply disturbed. He says he steals because he’s bored, maybe he doesn’t have any friends so he has nothing to do. Whereas the woman in Valentine has her partner, so she isn’t lonely at all but maybe a little afraid of loneliness.

The last line makes you realise he’s talking directly to someone by asking the question “You don’t understand a word I’m saying do you”. Perhaps no one has ever understood him.  

     Valentine and Stealing are also similar in a couple of ways like the person who the poems about is a character that I don’t particularly like or relate you. They both seem a bit disturbed I suppose. In Valentine, there is an angry feeling in the way it’s written. Her love sounds so strong it’s almost fearsome and there’s an angry way in which Stealing is written as well. Valentine is written in short direct sentences and Stealing is a long poem but it’s still as direct. Different because the character in Stealing has no one and doesn’t really want anyone so he’s cruel to people instead, and the character in Valentine is very much in love with someone she enjoys being with and is terribly possessive over losing him.

    I enjoy reading Valentine because it’s a powerful poem that is written with a lot of feeling. It’s also blatantly honest. I don’t like Stealing very much because of the style that it’s written in. It isn’t as affective as Valentine.