ANOTHER+ESSAY

With close reference to at least two poems discuss the methods the poets use to successfully explore emotions and/or feelings.

A Yiddish proverb that states, “The heart is half a prophet”. Poetry is an art form used by many to express emotion and feelings; the poet presents the reader with a glimpse of their mind. Some poems are a message to another, while others can be seen as a warning or lesson for our society. British poets Carol Ann Duffy and Simon Armitage use their respective poems, ‘Valentine’ and ‘Untitled’ to explore the emotion of love and its possessive nature. To veer away from the clichéd mass of traditional love poems, they both work in an unusual twist to challenge the accepted view of love. Duffy and Armitage are both masters of their art, and show us this through their clever use of structural and language techniques.

With a title of ‘Valentine’, the reader immediately assumes that the poem will be dealing with love, and the conventional feelings and behaviours associated with it. However, Duffy surprises us with the presentation of an unusual gift, as the persona offers “an onion” to their lover. While at first we are unconvinced that an onion is a fitting gift, we are taken in as Duffy crafts a successful argument, showing us how the extended metaphor of an onion is a far more meaningful gift than a clichéd “red rose or a satin heart”. The onion is “a moon wrapped in brown paper”; concealed enlightenment that can be “undressed” like two lovers. This undressing can be viewed not only literally but metaphorically as well, as the persona strips away any lies or deceptions in the relationship leaving just the bare, honest truth. Therefore, the onion’s many layers represent the many layers of love and its complexity. The fact that the onion’s “platinum loops shrink to a wedding ring” shows the reader that the poem contains a hidden proposal of marriage, and the depth of the passion between the two lovers in the poem. While Duffy wants us to see the positive side of love, she also presents the reader with a warning: love can be possessive and all consuming. The tone of the poem changes as she uses imperative commands such as “Here” and “Take it” to highlight the forceful, possessive side to the persona. At a first glance, a clever use of personification appears to show the intense passion of the relationship, as the onions taste is compared to “a fierce kiss that will remain on your lips”, but we realise that this is very negatively connotated. The memory and intensity of the persona will linger with the lover, even if the relationship ends. The persona will always have a form of possession over the lover. Even the marriage proposal with the symbol of the ring has a negative undertone, as the ring can come to symbolise perpetual entrapment. Due to this unusual presentation of love and its possessive nature in ‘Valentine’, we are made aware of Duffy’s personal attitude towards love. She is critical of the clichéd symbols of love in today’s society as she feels they are empty and meaningless. ‘Valentine’ is Duffy’s attempt to find a more authentic way to express emotion as well as explore the complexity of love; the pleasure as well as the pain.

Armitage also explores the emotion of love in his unconventional untitled poem. The poem is in the form of a sonnet, but Armitage plays with the structure, using it to highlight the unconventional subject matter. Sonnets typically have 14 lines and a regular rhyme scheme, but ‘Untitled’ uses internal rhyme instead, linking words such as “flame/name” and “blades/played”. While this can be perceived as Armitage’s way of showing the reader that this is not a typical love sonnet, the ‘imperfect’ nature of the structure could also be his way of highlighting the realness of the people in the poem, making them believable to the reader. Armitage links this unconventional sonnet structure with a use of archaic language, alluding to Shakespearean sonnets as he describes “O the unrivalled stench of branded skin”. Like Duffy, Armitage also feels that love can be possessive and consuming. However, he does not present the possessiveness through a gift; rather he uses the persona and his cruel childish actions. The persona “brands” the young girl with a pair of scissors, leaving a mark that will remain “for eternity”. The imagery associated with the word “branded” brings to the reader’s mind images of farm animals. The persona not only wanted to leave his mark on the girl so she would also have a reminder of him, but he viewed her as inferior and possessable. Armitage continues the idea of possession through the poignant symbolism of the “two burning rings”. He is clearly alluding to the unity of marriage, and how lovers become one another’s in the process; almost owning each other. However, the fact that she “couldn’t shake them off” shows the reader that this possession was unwanted. Armitage’s views on marriage as potentially lethal ‘entrapment’ are shown here; if the relationship sours, two people can be effectively stuck in an unwanted unity forever. While a rather comical poem, the subject matter and unwanted possession in ‘Untitled’ could be Armitage’s way of warning us of the hidden negative aspects of love and how it affects people.

Love and its possessive nature are emotions successfully explored by Duffy and Armitage in their poems ‘Valentine’ and ‘Untitled’. Both use numerous structural and language techniques to convey the depth of their poems to the reader, and show us their views on love in an unconventional way. Shakespeare once wrote, “The course of true love never did run smooth”, and in both the poems his statement is proved correct, as the poets show us not an idealised version of love, but the real, often complicated nature of it.