Valentine: Form and Structure

“Valentine: Form and Structure”

Free Verse

• Valentine is a free verse poem neither adhering to any conventional rhyme scheme nor fixed poetic structure.
• The lack of structure allows Duffy to flow seamlessly through her exploration of love, mimicking its unpredictable and organic nature.
• Use of line breaks and white spaces create rhythm and emphasis. For example, “I give you an onion” at the start of the poem sets the tone for the unconventional love offering.

Stanzas and Line Length

• The poem consists of stanzas of varying lengths, ranging from one line to five lines, reflecting the inconsistent and volatile aspects of love.
• Use of short lines, such as “Its platinum loops shrink to a wedding ring,” produce dramatic effect and invite pause, emphasizing the poem’s critical reflections on love.

Repetition

• Repetition is used as a structural device, for instance, “Not a cute card or a kissogram” reiterates the speaker’s rejection of conventional expressions of love.
• Repetition emphasizes the constant interplay between love’s layers of complexity and the speaker’s endeavours to convey it authentically.

Internal Structure

• The poem explores the various symbolic meanings of the onion in details, structuring its internal exploration layer by layer similar to peeling of an onion.
• Duffy uses the extended metaphor of an onion to structure the poem. The poem unfolds layer by layer, much like the qualities and traits of love unfolds through shared experience, thereby mirroring the form of the poem to its content.