Question

Why do you think in the poem"Valentine"Carol Ann Duffy want to give an onion as a gift to her lover?Describe the metaphors that she uses in the poem.​

Answer 1

Answer:

Explanation:

Question: Why do you think Carol Ann Duffy want to give an onion as a gift to her lover? Describe the metaphor that she uses in the poem.

Answer: Carol Ann Duffy was born in Glasgow in a working class family that believed in social change and politics of protest. Duffy's work explores both everyday experience and the rich fantasy life of herself and others. In dramatizing scenes from childhood, adolescence, and adult life, she discovers moments of consolation through love, memory, and language. Duffy liked to challenge normal views with her new ideas and express her thought through her play and poems.

Duffy used so many passionate words in “Valentine” like fierce, lethal, possessive, shrink, blind, grief to express the depth meaning of love and relationship to the reader of the poem or to the lover. In “Valentine” Duffy mentioned-

Not a red rose nor a satin heart.

I give you an onion.

It is a moon wrapped in brown paper.

It promises light,

Like the cheerful undressing of love.

Duffy changes the rose to an onion. The poem in not about the onion or rose but about love, honesty. In this poem she is talking personally to the reader. In this poem Duffy views love as healthy so long as it avoids both tacky romance and marriage. It is sound like a message to a lover.

A rose is a traditional but unoriginal valentine gift while an onion is a very untraditional valentine gift. To poet, an onion is her symbol of love. The image of the onion is an extended metaphor throughout the poem.

The onion is given metaphorical significance; it is the moon wrapped in brown paper. The brown paper refers to the layers of onion skin surrounding. Brown paper is also a common and plain kind of material and peeling an onion is like lovers undressing. Duffy is passing the onion as the gift to her lover.

In relationships lovers may hurt each other but they have to be honest to make relationships work. Onion can make you cry so does love. Here onion represents relationship and cry represents the hardship on a relationship.

In another verse poet said-

“I give you an onion.

Its fierce kiss will stay on your lips

Possessive and faithful

As we are,

For as long as we are.”

Poet gives her lover an onion like a ring, the symbol of love. As the taste of an onion lingers so does a memory of kiss and love. That’s why I think Carol Ann Duffy wanted to give an onion as a gift to her lover.