Duffy sets up an unconventional exploration of romantic relationships by promptly undermining them
The speaker features an onion to be a Valentine’s gift, rejecting regular romantic symbols like roses. The onion itself is explained metaphorically as being a “moon wrapped in brown paper”
‘Valentine’ suits ironically within the custom of love poems. The poem is a primary man or woman narrative, addressed to a next human being ‘you’.
Wendy Cope’s “Valentine” accommodates the standard themes of love poetry whilst hinting at twenty first-century perspectives. In 8 short lines, the reader will get a trim view of the cagey speaker, 1 who both of those looks adept enough to execute advanced poetic approach, but who also expresses crushing self-doubt. Line two, recurring as Line 8 because the poem’s remaining assertion, exhibits feasible regret: “I’m fearful it’s you.” The speaker certainly appears to acknowledge that the intended audience for the confession of love will not be happy and Pretty much surely will not return the speaker’s affection.
Romantic Relationships: Given that the crux with the poem, Duffy examines the different sides of romantic relationships, from enthusiasm to suffering, Consequently exhibiting their advanced mother nature.
With using adverb “Below”, the speaker delivers the gift for their spouse, in comparison with the more insistent crucial in the ultimate stanza, “Acquire it.”; the delicate shift in tone could show a feeling of urgency or an intensification in their emotion
yet my eyes preserve returning into the masters in the trivial—a white stone beautifully round, tiny direct products of baseball players, a cowbell, a damaged great-grandmother's rocker,
Language for instance “blind”, “intense” and “possessive” suggests an intensity to love that will only previous as long as They are really true to each other. “If you prefer” indicates the depth of love isn’t dependant on a marriage ring.
like much of Hall’s early work, will take condition under formal strain: made up of 110 stanzas, split around a few sections, its final sections are written in blank verse.
The forceful presentation of this gift, and the final word decision, also implies this is the relationship that is cruel, domineering and menacing
"You’re the peanut butter to my jelly, the cheese to my macaroni, as well as the love of my life!"— Not known
sinks beneath an anxiousness she cannot withstand. A further friend of many years estranges himself in words that pollute 30 years. Let us stifle under mud within the pond's edge and affirm that it can be fitting
The speaker emphasises the honesty and intensity of this unconventional gift, contrasting it with “cute cards or kissograms”
"It's...brown paper" - metaphor - "moon" - connotations of romance "brown paper" - refers the two to read more the feel and colour with the outer layer of the onion along with reminding us that true romantic gifts will not should be embellished or hid within expensive wrapping - parcel/gift to unwrap