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Examine how Duffy presents feelings of love in ‘First Love’ and ‘Valentine’ (25 marks)

In Duffy’s poems ‘First love’ and ‘Valentine’ connections with feelings of love are very
significant
...
‘First love’
presents a sense of nostalgia and emotions towards her first relationship she experienced in her
youth, for example she reflects on how it was a ‘dream’ and time of uncertainty
...

In ‘Valentine’, Duffy uses an everyday ordinary object, ‘an onion’ which is an extended metaphor
to present her deepest feelings and abstract thoughts
...
On the opening
line ‘Not a red rose or a satin heart’ the use of cacophony and plosive such as ‘satin heart’ and
‘not a red rose’ sounds as if this sentence is being spat and is negative, it is also
straightforward
...
Also the simile on line 5 ‘like the careful undressing of love’ creates imagery
and personification
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Line 6,
allows the reader to picture the speaker handing the onion to her lover through the demand
‘here
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In ‘First Love’, Duffy opens with ‘Waking, with a dream of first love forming real words, as close
to my lips as lipstick, I speak your name’
...
‘Dream’ is a reference to the
surrealism that is associated with being in love for the first time
...

The simile and lateral ‘lips as lipstick’ creates an immediate attraction to their first love and
sense of romantically/physically closeness symbolising a kiss
...
Duffy
then goes on to highlighting the naivety in first love in stanza 2, showing a loss of innocence an
ownership and the sense of youth in it through the line ‘This was a child's love
...


Valentine also uses a single sentence stanza that stands on its own, ‘I am trying to be truthful’
Duffy uses diphthong ‘trying to’ and underlines how she is trying to tell the bitter truth half-way
through the poem, a line conveying honesty
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Repetition is used, ‘I give you an onion’ and both stanzas have the same syllable count
(9) and similar wording ‘not’ and a rejection of two typical symbols of love ‘cute card’ and
‘kissogram’
...
The
metaphor/personification of the onion is then compared to a jealous lover and the way their kiss
at this point in the relationship would be a mixture of passion and punishment
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‘Possessive’ hints at obsessive love and how this is turning into an unhealthy relationship, one
of the partners is evidently suffering from this claustrophobia relationship
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The metaphor ‘its platinum loops shrink to a wedding-ring’ implies being trapped, the loops are
‘platinum’ meaning a very precious metal which is ironic because the onion is not at all precious
or desirable
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In conclusion, ‘first love’ and ‘valentine’ both present feelings of love
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Duffy successfully presents the thoughts and feelings surrounded first love in this
reflective poem
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