Valentine Carol Ann Duffy Analysis

In the poem Valentine, written by Carol Ann Duffy, the author uses and extended metaphor of an onion. Instead of a cute love card, flowers or even chocolate, Duffy suggest more of an originality is needed. Carol Ann Duffy creates impacts through an unusually gift of the onion. She challenges our minds about love, in a surprising, creative and unique way.

Carol Ann Duffy starts off the poem with a negative, “Not a red rose or a satin heart. I give you an onion.” Duffy takes the usually gifts away and uses the onion, for her symbol of love. Duffy describes the onion as, “ It’s a moon wrapped in brown paper,” she has used the onion to represent the moon, because most lovers share love with each other at night, under the stars, with the moon shining on their faces. The author also writes, “It will blind you with tears like a lover,” meaning that when you fall in love with someone, you are blinded by them and can’t see anyone else, but them, just like an onion, when you cut one, it releases particles that sting your eyes, making you tear up. Duffy explains her thoughts with the onion and connects to her lover in an unique way.
We start to see that the author is getting impatient with her lover, not quite understanding her Valentine gift and starts to express what this onion symbols, “It’s fierce kiss will stay on on your lips, possessive and faithful as we are, for as long as we are.” Meaning that their love will always be there, even if something happens between them, their love will still haunt them and whatever happens, happens. Also when you eat an onion, the taste lingers in your mouth and doesn’t go away for a long period of time, just like Duffy’s love for her