Analyzing Two Poems: "Ever After" and "Valentine"

I decided to analyze the poems “Ever After” and “Valentine” for my next essay. I chose these two  because they both have views on a romantic relationship whether they are about being together or a break up. Before I read both of these poems, I took a guess at the title and assumed they both were going to be about cute, sappy romantic relationships. The words “ever after” are normally preceded by the word “happily” so why wouldn’t I think it’d be about that? Also, looking at the title, “Valentine,” one would normally assume it’d be about chocolate and roses because that’s what most couples get each other on February 14th. But these two poems were far different than what I expected.

The poem, “Ever After,” seems to be about two people that split up which is just the opposite of having a “happily ever after.” In the poem, poet, Joyce Sutphen, is asking what the other lover thinks of her now that they aren’t together. It seems they were married because she says “words we rarely used (husband, wife)” (line 10) and throughout the poem, it looks like they must have had a divorce. There’s more to this poem and when I write my essay, I will talk about it more.

In the poem, “Valentine,” the poet, Carol Ann Duffy gets her lover an onion for Valentine’s Day. I was a little confused about this poem the first time I read it, but once we went over it in class, it made a bit more sense to me. It’s definitely not the typical poem you would read to someone you love on Valentine’s Day. The onion seems to be a symbol of love for Carol, instead of the cliche heart, rose, or chocolate that most couples would give each other on that day. Throughout the poem, she explains how the onion is like love to her, using its layers as one example. The longer you stay in a relationship with a person, the more it grows and the more you peel back the “layers” of that person and learn more about them. That’s just one of the many things she talks about when comparing an onion with love and I plan to look deeper into the poem when I write my essay about it.

Something that both of these poems have in common is how they both mention a knife. “Ever After” mentions it when Joyce talks about her and her lover cutting the wedding cake, but the way she describes it seems like she’s talking about more than just a cake. She mentions layers and I can’t help but think maybe she was talking about the layers of their love or relationship and how detrimental a knife can be. When someone accidentally cuts themselves with a knife, it harms them, and maybe in the same way, the knife “cut” into their relationship and ruined it for them. I’m not sure if that actually made sense, but in my head, it did. In the poem, “Valentine,” Carol explains that the scent of the onion will cling to your fingers and your knife indicating that even if you leave that person, they will always be with you. Both of the poems have a darker feel to them, talking about knives when you’d expect them to be talking about hearts and roses.

Another thing that these poems have in common is when they both talk about the layers, whether it be on a wedding cake or an onion. I mentioned it above in both paragraphs and I plan to look further into that topic when I write my essay. I hope this analysis made at least a little bit of sense!