"Valentine" by Carol Ann Duffy

Etymology: Latin letalis, lethalis, from letum "death"

1 a: of, relating to, or causing death <death by lethal injection> b: capable of causing death <lethal chemicals>

2: gravely damaging or destructive : devastating <a lethal attack on his reputation>

3: very potent or effective <a lethal fastball> ; also: having a high alcohol content <a lethal rum punch>

Study Questions

What conventions of love poetry does Duffy use? Which does she reject? What characteristics are typical of love messages that people send to each other? Which of these typical themes, vocabulary, style, imagery, or structure are also found in Duffy's "Valentine"?
Former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown spoke of the new Poet Laureate to the BBC in 2009 as "a truly brilliant modern poet who has stretched our imaginations by putting the whole range of human experiences into lines that capture the emotions perfectly." Do you think this describes what Duffy does in "Valentine"? If so, how has she "stretched our imaginations" and what emotions does she capture perfectly?
Duffy has said that "I am not interested, as a poet, in words like ‘plash’—Seamus Heaney words, interesting words. I like to use simple words, but in a complicated way." Choose a word from the poem that you feel is simple but used in a complicated way and explain.

Response 1:
Study Question: What conventions of love poetry does Duffy use? Which does she reject? What characteristics are typical of love messages that people send to each other? Which of these typical themes, vocabulary, style, imagery, or structure are also found in Duffy's "Valentine"?

Sunny Tanekwong

2202242 Introduction to the Study of English Poetry

Acharn Puckpan Tipayamontri

July 3, 2009

Reading Response 2

My Love, Don’t Be My Valentine

Love poetry, says Carol Ann Duffy, is “the most exciting, the most challenging poetry to write” without “saying something which has been said before” (Flood). Following a long tradition of first person speaker giving gifts, promises, sexiness, faithfulness, rings and the moon, and demanding the lover to act in response, Duffy would seem to be using all the themes and vocabulary of love talk that has been said before from blind love to scents, light, and time if not for the way she uses them.

Love in this poem comes in a mundane package that only with careful peeling away the layers does one find something precious underneath. The surprise is not only in the opening rejection of clichéd love tokens like the red rose and satin heart and offering in their place the less glamorous onion, but also in the luminous moon found inside. Furthermore, there is not one word that flatters her lover with how pretty she is. Duffy takes love poetry from its romantic natural setting outdoors in to a domestic and unromantic kitchen. Even less romantic is the onion’s kiss and its association with onion breath that any lover attempting to woo a sweetheart would avoid. Instead of a rosy and soft picture of love, she gives a “wobbling photo of grief” and the harsher, cutting, knife-like truth.

Works Cited

Flood, Alison. “Love Poetry Is Hardest to Write, Says New Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy.” The Guardian. Guardian News and Media, 28 May 2009. Web. 1 July 2009. <http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2009/may/28/carol-ann-duffy-love-poetry>.

Student Name

2202234 Introduction to the Study of English Literature

Acharn Puckpan Tipayamontri

September 6, 2011

Reading Response #1

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