‘Valentine’ and ‘Stealing’, By Carol-Ann Duffy
FOR IDEAS ONLY, DO NOT COPY
In ‘Valentine’ and ‘Stealing’, Carol-Ann Duffy uses an extended metaphor which helps the reader relate to what the poet is trying to get across, and to understand what the feelings are of the narrator.
Both poems also focus on the thoughts and emotions of the ‘speaker’, both are structured as conversational pieces, meaning you could just use it to talk to someone, and could imagine the reactions of the person they’re talking to. Duffy also never reveals the sex or identity of either person.
In ‘Valentine’ she uses an onion to explain love, going from the idea that it’s really romantic, to how it’s lethal.
“It’s a moon wrapped in brown paper” for an example. Duffy was using a moon because it’s nearly always associated with romance in films and movies.
The “brown paper” is the skin of the onion, meaning that she’s being careful to mention all of the aspects of the onion, and the fact that it’s a gift, because, traditionally, you wrap gifts up.
In ‘Stealing’, Duffy uses a snowman to describe the thief’s emotions, relating to how they are both cold inside.
“A mate/with a mind as cold as the slice of ice/within my own brain.”
The thief thinks that the snowman suits them, because the snowman reflects what he thinks about himself. It means that the thief feels numb an cold inside, that they can’t feel anything, or think they can’t as this is proven later on in the poem.
Both the poems are conversations, though to different people. ‘Valentine’ is to the speaker’s other half, who is anonymous to the reader. The ‘Stealing’ guy seems to be talking to everyone he thinks will listen to him.
‘Valentine’ and ‘Stealing’ both have tones that change throughout the poem.
For an example, ‘Valentine’ starts out that love is happy, that it is great, and sounds like the first part of the poem should be read in a light romantic tone, but reveals more about the poets feelings as we learn about he relationship, and how it’s “possessive and faithful”. “Possessive” is a word which makes the relationship sound like it traps Duffy, away from the world. Possessiveness is usually a bad thing in a relationship, as it means that either the man or the woman is too adamant about their other half talking or spending time with anyone else, when “faithful” is something most relationships long for, or make people happy with their lives because both in a are faithful.
The first two lines of the poem set the mood of fear and gloom which is constant throughout the remainder of the poem. The word choice of "black" to describe the speaker's face can convey several messages (502). The most obvious meaning ...
Anne Stevenson created a tragically beautiful scene by comparing a home to a relationship. Her use of metaphors and tone is striking to the sense of emotion, however that emotion fades easily when the poem is picked apart for what it really is. The reader is
It seems that throughout the novel there is an extended metaphor of Snowman as various figures from the Christian bible. The first figure that Snowman can be said to represent is that of Adam, the first man, though the similarities between the two characters do not follow the same chronology. Just as Adam is given the animals as companions to look over, similarly Crake has ensured that the Crakers and Jimmy are both left in the newly re-created world as companions.
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...ing my gut” indicating the mixed up link between the persona and the snowman. This indicates the snowman is symbolising not only the cold in the speakers life but his loneliness, but when he smashes up the snowman, “booted him. Again. Again” the use of truncated sentences and repetition emphasises this action. Here the persona is taking on the role of extortionists, attempting to destroy part of them self. The self destructive behaviour shows the insecure and self loathing persona. The allocation of a profound persona to an individual allows the reader to empathise with the hardships experienced.
In "Valentine" Carol Ann Duffy starts off the poem by describing the state of the relationship and uses the words like the careful undressing of love to create a simile of sexual nature. As the poem progresses, we find out that Carol Ann Duffy is, in fact, ending the story. relationship with the person concerned. She uses phrases like possessive and lethal, which certainly does not conform to most. Valentine poems for today.
Tobias Wolff is framing his story Hunters in the Snow, in the countryside near Spokane, Washington, where three friends with three different personalities, decided to take a trip to the woods for hunting in a cold, snowy weather. The whole story follows the hunting trip of these three friends. The reader can easily observe that the cold, hostile environment is an outward expression of how the men behave towards one another. Kenny, with a heart made of ice is rather hostile to Tub, while Frank is cold and indifferent to Tub and his pleas for help.The environment is matching the characters themselves, being cold and uncaring as the author described the two from truck when they laughed at the look of Tub: “You ought to see yourself,” the driver said. “He looks just like a beach ball with a hat on, doesn’t he? Doesn’t he, Frank?”(48). Near the beginning of the story the cold and the waiting surely creates an impact in the mood of the character. Tub is restless from the wait and the cold adds on to it. He complains about being cold and Kenny and Frank, his friends tell him to stop complaining, which seems to be very unfriendly. Wolff builds up the story on the platform of cold weather and the impact of the cold on each character slowly builds up.
The poem I have chosen to compare with “ Valentine” is “ She walks in beauty” by Lord Byron. I chose SWIB because it is very different to valentine as it is about Byron expressing his love and celebrating his love for his cousin.
In all poems the theme of Disappointment in love is seen throughout. Duffy focuses on the pain, despair and acrimony that love can bring, whereas Larkin focuses on the dissatisfaction before, during, and after a romantic relationship. Both Duffy and Larkin differ in tone. Duffy takes a more aggressive and dark stance to portray what love can do to a person after a disappointing love life. Duffy also uses this sinister and aggressive stance to try and convey sympathy for the persona from the audience in ‘Never Go Back’ and ‘Havisham’ Whereas Larkin conveys his discontent in love through his nonchalant and dismissive tone, but still concealing the pain that has been brought by love in ‘Wild Oats’ and ‘Talking in bed’.
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She defines her idea of what is right in a relationship by describing how hard and painful it is for her to stray from that ideal in this instance. As the poem evolves, one can begin to see the author having a conflict with values, while simultaneously expressing which values are hers and which are unnatural to her. She accomplishes this accounting of values by personalizing her position in a somewhat unsettling way throughout the poem.