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- Valentine describes a gift for a lover, such as you would give on Valentine’s Day. It is a rather unusual present – an onion.
- The poem explains why it is a powerful gift of love, much more than the clichéd roses or box of chocolates.
- The onion becomes a metaphor for love, and so the poem is about love as well as Valentine gifts.
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- The title suggests a typical love poem but the opening line “Not a red rose or a satin heart” suggests the poet flouts traditional images of love.
- The poem is written in first person, “I give you an onion” immediately debunking the idea of a traditional gift.
- The idea of love isn’t elevated or refined as “a wobbling photo of grief” suggests love can be painful and our emotions can overwhelm us.
- Language such as “blind”, “fierce” and “possessive” suggests an intensity to love that will only last as long as they are true to each other. “If you like” implies the intensity of love isn’t dependant on a wedding ring.
- Final words – “cling to your knife” suggests love can be dangerous and all consuming. The slightly sinister tone suggests an obsessive side to love.
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- The poem begins by listing clichéd gifts that people give and receive for Valentine’s Day.
- As the poem progresses, Duffy explores pain and hurt that is associated with love and she ends the poem using a negative tone and a hint of danger.
- The romantic imagery at the start of the poem ‘rose’ and ‘kissogram’ is starkly contrasted by non romantic words at the end like ‘Knife’ and ‘lethal,’ which makes love seem dangerous.
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- Carol Ann Duffy (born 1955) is a Scottish poet and fierce feminist.
- Her collection The World’s Wife took characters from history, literature and mythology and gave them a female point of view, as a sister, a wife or a feminised version of a character.
- Carol Ann Duffy wrote Valentine after a radio producer asked her to write an original poem for St. Valentine's Day.
- Duffy likes to break conventions and in Valentine she is criticising society’s views of being materialistic.
- Duffy’s poem is reminiscent of metaphysical poets such as John Donne, who approached ordinary objects in original and surprising ways.
- The multilayered complexity of the onion represents a real relationship and is used as an extended metaphor throughout.
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