Discuss How Carol Ann Duffy Makes Effective Use Of Metaphor. Essay

Discuss How Carol Ann Duffy Makes Effective Use Of Metaphor. In ‘Valentine’, Carol Ann Duffy uses metaphors to illustrate and attempt to explain the complex subject of love. ‘Valentine’ is a very poignant, meaningful poem which is on a very personal level with C.A.D. It seems as if she is drawing on personal experiences. The general tone of the poem appears to be one of bitterness and resentment. Forceful comments such as, ‘†¦Here..’ and ‘†¦Take it†¦Ã¢â‚¬â„¢ suggest that she still holds hidden anger towards the events from which she is drawing her memories. The main metaphor that she uses is of course an onion. She uses an onion to compare the different aspects of love in a number of ways. In the first instance of C.A.D’s use of an onion she uses it to compare the fact that both an onion and love have many layers. She proposes that this is a huge similarity between the two apparently unrelated objects. Secondly, C.A.D uses the onion’s shape and colour to reflect how life changing love can be. She describes the onion as ‘†¦a moon wrapped in brown paper†¦Ã¢â‚¬â„¢ What she means by this is that love can light up your heart but that it often becomes clouded by other issues and problems- the brown paper symbolizes the ‘barrier’. In another way, the brown paper could symbolize boundaries people sometimes erect because they are scared or cynical. C.A.D. seems to be cynical about love-all throughout the poem she seems to want to escape the clichà ©s and what most people would consider as romance. Perhaps this may be because she has had a bad experience of love which she has then illustrated through words in her poem. Just after this she states ‘†¦it promises light..’ which means that C.A.D is suggesting that sometimes a... ...reak. In the final stanza, C.A.D writes, ‘†¦the air tasted of electricity..’ She is referring to the charged atmosphere caused by adolescent hormones. Obviously the classroom is going to be full of hormones because of all the children. Another reference to the heavily charged atmosphere is, ‘†¦the heavy, sexy sky..’ which just supports the atmosphere being hormonally charged. Carol Ann Duffy’s use of metaphors is very effective and illustrative-it causes readers to form subconscious links between objects which in reality are apparently unrelated. Without the use of metaphors, her poems would be entirely different and I am not sure they would be as flowing or as descriptive. The metaphors are often the basis upon which C.A.D’s descriptions are built. She uses them to great effect by blending and layering metaphors with other adjectives and descriptions.