In her poem "Valentine" the English poetess Carol Ann Duffy, who is currently considered to be one of the most important young talents, describes "love" in a very realistic way: the authoress destroys the conventional picture of love and writes about the pain and bitterness feelings may cause. I think that the poem is based on Carol Ann Duffy's personal experiences and that she has probably been hurt in previous relationships.

This poem is a typical example for modern poetry because it is unrhymed, there is no rhythmic pattern and there are only few poetic devices in it. The poetess uses parallelisms like "I give you an onion"(line2 and14) and similes to express her attitude towards the problems connected with love.

The poem "Valentine" can be divided into 4 stanzas and the verses vary in length and form: on the one hand Carol Ann Duffy uses disjointed phrases...