Valentine - Carol Ann Duffy

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  • Created by: Noah_S
  • Created on: 28-03-19 20:00
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  • Valentine
    • Carol Ann Duffy  - 1993
    • Middle
      • "Possessive and faithful / as we are / for as long as we are"
        • The repetition of the plural first person pronoun ‘we’ alludes to marital vows, and is as though the speaker is accepting these realities
        • The juxtaposed adjectives ‘possessive’ and ‘faithful’ capture the two sides to love. 
      • "I am trying to be truthful."
        • The speaker is perhaps attempting to justify all that has been said so far, and continues to stress the desire for honesty within the relationship.
        • What follows is a change in tone to one which appears to be more brutal and threatening.
    • Context
      • Duffy's poetry is often focussed on love or written from the perspective of disturbed characters
      • Born in Glasgow, she moved with her family to Stafford when she was 7
      • Duffy often tackles difficult subjects, encouraging the reader to explore alternative points of view.
    • Beginning
      • 'Not a red rose or a satin heart.'
        • Semantic field of cliché is love is evident through the ongoing reference to the ‘typical’ symbols often associated with love and Valentine’s day. 
        • This is evident throughout to foreground the idea that love is not actually represented well by these things
      • "‘It will make your reflection / a wobbling photo of grief"
        • "It will" suggests that the speaker has experienced love before and is speaking from experience
        • This emphasises the vulnerability and danger people expose themselves to a romantic relationship and reminds us of its destructive potential.
    • Form and Stucture
      • The poem is written in free verse using irregular stanzas - there is 7 stanzas
        • This form echoes the form of an onion itself, and the layers that go to make it up.
        • support its content and purpose, which is to reject traditional restrictive conventions such as marriage and other notions of love
      • The poem is a first person narrative
        • We don’t know who the "you" is, but perhaps, as it’s the kind of person who would normally receive a "cute card" it’s a woman
    • End
      • "Cling to your fingers, / cling to your knife"
      • "Its platinum loops shrink to a wedding ring"
        • A metaphor of love. The rings can either mean the inner part of an onion, or metaphorically represents the ring of marriage.
        • The verb "shrink" could represent how love shrinks overtime

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