She rejects the gifts conventionally associated with Valentine’s Day, such as ‘red-rose’, ‘satin cloth’, ‘cute card’, ‘kissogram’ but by bringing a Copernican revolution with the option of ‘Onion’ as a gift which we find in the second line as “I give you an onion”. The poem commences with a negative note “not a red rose” to slash the traditional offering of rose or satin cloth on Valentine’s Day. This is indeed to portray the idea that love is not to be taken as a bed of roses always, but to accept the thorns we find underneath the roses. Love has joyful and sorrowful nature. Carol gives the image of onion to love.
The structure of the poem has been manipulated to emphasise Duffy's key points. We have the use of a form of dialogue as the narrator is speaking to her lover however he does not reply showing a one sided viewpoint of their relationship. This is used to express the perspective of the narrator and invites the reader in to question the idea of their relationship and the fact that she presents her lover with an onion which would be considered as a ridiculous gift to give somebody that you love. Duffy presents the ridiculous idea of the onion in the poem as she says “I give you an onion.” This is immediately presented as a strange idea as an onion is usually seen as a repellent and a very un-romantic object so the fact that she is giving this to her lover could connotate a negative, unloving relationship between the narrator and her lover. On the other hand, it could show that the relationship between the narrator and her lover is not seen as the stereotypical ‘type’ of love as she uses the unromantic gift of an onion to convey her love and to show that the onion consists of several layers which could connotate the type of relationship the narrator and her lover has and that their relationship is unique.
He says “I give you an onion”, this is considered abstract symbolism because he is taking something that is never associated with love and claiming it to be more meaningful than “a cute card or a kissogram”, he sees them as cliché and not real. The writer also talks of the layers of an onion as unveiling love, “like the careful undressing of love”. This symbolizes the idea that love gets stronger as time goes on and not to expect everything to happen at once. On the other hand “My last duchess” has contrasting language to this. He uses the idea of
Similarly, in Sonnet 116, ‘Love is not Time’s fool’ shows that love lasts a long time, the personification of ‘Love’ and ‘Time’ emphasis that love is greater than and cannot be affected by time. Throughout the poem Valentine, Duffy uses an onion as an extended metaphor for true love. "I give you an onion" Duffy cleverly uses the onion in various different ways to explain her views about love. In Sonnet 116 the metaphor ‘that looks on tempests and is never shaken’ shows that Shakespeare believes that true love cannot be destroyed by an argument or when going through hard times. Valentine has a negative view throughout it, ‘It will blind you with
Luigi Falcon Professor Sills English 100 4 August 2012 Analysis of Metaphor in “Monologue for an Onion” In the poem “Monologue for an onion” by Suji Kwock Kim, the onion signifies the poet and the character she seems to be referring to in the poem, is her companion. The metaphoric onion is used to send a message to this companion of hers, telling him, she’s just like an onion, which is heartless and has no core, so he needs to stop trying to dig and uncover this core that doesn’t exist. Her companion in the poem is portrayed as being obsessive in trying to find a core beneath her flesh. The tone of the poem is set when the poet becomes frustrated with her assumed companion and uses the metaphor onion to show how unemotional she is. An onion has many layers of skin.
Cosi The particular aspect of love that is the focus of the play is fidelity; the notion of faithfulness, commitment and loyalty. The play explores many aspects of love, the characters present slightly different perspectives, some final about their positions from the start and others change or develop differing perspectives. This concept is explored through the individual characters Lucy and Lewis. Using the technique of characterisation, Nowra is able to present the idea of ‘free love’ negatively to the audience through the character Lucy. Who strongly endorses the idea that love is an indulgence, “After bread, shelter, equality, health, procreation, money comes maybe love” .
The reason for his lack of affection may be because E.B.B is being too demanding and obstinate of her own perspectives of what love is and how she would like to be loved. • She is also stereotyping the way men perceive women, and the only reason why men fall in love with women is for their appearance and physique. This is interpreted through the accumulative listing from line 3 to 6, when she was telling Robert Browning not to say he loves her for those superficial reasons. • The themes from this poem are – love and unconditional love, mockery and superficiality. • The techniques used in this poem are – accumulative listing, from line 3 to 6 and emotive language, used throughout the poem, but especially from line
The poem “With His Venom” illustrates romantic love that is described as bittersweet (Sappho, page.772, line 3). However, in the poems “Golden Bells” and “Remembering Golden Bells” Po Chu-i speaks about the love of a father and child, which can also be construed as bittersweet. First, “With His Venom” is a poem about love and the pain that comes with it. The poem begins by saying ‘“With his venom”’ (Sappho, p.772, line 1). Here she uses the word venom to illustrate a perception of love.
As told by an onion, Kim’s poem describes mankind’s pursuit for truth through the simple action of peeling and preparing an onion. In the beginning of the poem the onion is apologetic for making the peeler cry despite his refusal to stop. This to me is a metaphor that describes a person’s desire and persistence to dig for answers even when it is harmful to themselves or other parties involved. The onion’s attitude in the beginning is somewhat neutral but changes throughout the poem as it becomes evident through the onion’s perspective that the person peeling is in search of its “heart” leaving behind the “debris
The poem I chose was “Living in Sin” by Adrienne Rich. The title itself leads you to think that the poem is based on two lovers who are not yet “married under God” and are committing sin. Though in none of the lines does it say whether they are married or not, one is left with that impression by the title alone. Perhaps the author’s tone is meant to show you there is no “sweetest sin”. The woman in the poem speaks of her life as though it were a chore and the man, her lover, is but a bother.