Hello and welcome to today's lesson.

My name is Ms. Watson and I'm really looking forward to teaching you today.

We are going to be analysing that fabulous poem, "Valentine" by Carol Ann Duffy.

Now before we start, you need to make sure that you have your Eduqas Poetry Anthology.

So when you've got that, we will get started.

So the outcome of today's lesson is that you will be able to analyse how Duffy uses language, form, and structure to present the speaker's views on love.

As ever, we will begin with the key words.

They are lethal, inevitable, tone, to romanticise, and marginalise.

Let's look at what they mean.

Something that is lethal is serious or dangerous enough to cause death.

If something is inevitable, it is certain to happen and unavoidable.

Tone.

This is the poet's attitude towards the subject matter.

And it's a really useful word for understanding poetry.

To romanticise something, it means to view something in an unrealistic or idealistic way.

And when we marginalise somebody, we treat them or we treat it as though they or it are not important.

They are on the edges of importance for us.

Now, if you would like to familiarise yourself with the keywords in a little bit more detail, please feel free to pause the video now and come back and join us when you are ready.

So let's look at the outline of today's lesson.

We are going to start by looking at the reality of love.

And then we are going to look at the changing tone of the poem.

So, there's a picture of an onion, and this is a recap question.

How does this image link to the poem "Valentine?" Have a think, and then we can share ideas.

Okay, so like this, in these ways.

In the poem, the speaker gives her lover an onion as a symbol of her love.

So what we're going to do today is we are going to track, which means follow, Duffy's presentation of the different stages and effects of love.

Here are some words that she uses to describe love and its effects in the poem.

In stanza two, she uses the words "light" and "careful." And in stanza three, she uses the words "wobbling" and "grief." And in stanza six, she uses the words "fierce," "possessive," and "faithful." And in stanza seven, she uses that word "lethal," meaning deadly.

And she also uses the word "cling." Now, what I would like you to discuss is these words, individually, I'd like you to conduct a single word analysis on each of these words.

And the bigger question that you are asking yourself is, how does the presentation of love change throughout the poem? So I'd like you to pause the video while you discuss that.

If you are working on your own today, that's fine.

All you need to do is think about the question and jot down some ideas.

So, off you go.

Welcome back.

What a great discussion that was.

Isn't it amazing how much you can read into individual words? So here are some ideas that you might have had.

In stanza two, you've got the words "light" and "careful." And so in the beginning, you might say that love is presented as nurturing, caring, and pure.

Love can bring light and intimacy and connection to a person's life.

And in stanza three, we have a really distinct change of mood to "wobbling" and "grief." And maybe Duffy is saying that love inevitably causes grief and sadness.

Love cannot be light all the time.

It can make your reflection unrecognisable.

And wobbling suggests the uncertainty and insecurity that love can cause.

And in stanza six, "fierce," "possessive," "faithful," the passion of love is conveyed in this stanza.

We see love as something that many people strive to protect, something precious and valuable.

And then in stanza seven, with the word "lethal" and the word "cling," the darker side to love is conveyed in the final stanza, with the word "cling" suggesting that the lasting effects of love are irreversible whether or not you want to continue to feel them.

We are being told that love is "lethal." It has the capacity for destruction.

Now we're going to have a check for understanding.

Which of the following words conveys the most extreme harm that love can do? Is it A, cling, B, possessive, C, lethal, or D, scent? Have a think.

That's right.

It's lethal.

Well done.

Let's move on.

So here are the key words from the stanzas again.

And you can see that the poet's presentation of love becomes more intense and darker as the poem progresses.

And I want you to think about why that is.

Why do you think the poet has structured the poem in this way? Why doesn't she start with the darker side of love and end on a lighter note? Please, you can pause the video while you have that discussion, or if you're working alone, just jot some ideas down.

Okay, so what about this response? Perhaps the poet wanted to warn us of the potentially dangerous side of love if it becomes unhealthy for a person.

Perhaps this last answer is a warning against the belief that love is purely an uplifting and positive emotion.

Duffy may want to warn readers that it also has the capacity to harm people.

Now that's a really interesting response to that question.

Is it similar to yours? Is it different? You can take any ideas from that and use them in your understanding of the Duffy poem.

Now we are going to have a discussion about the overall message of the poem.

So do you think, overall, that the poet has a negative view of love? I want you to answer this question by considering the presentation of love at different points in the poem.

And I'm going to give you some discussion prompts below that will help you frame your ideas.

Overall, I believe that, whatever it is you believe, because, that is where you give your reason.

Can I just ask why you think? Because you might want to ask for further information from somebody in your class.

That's interesting.

I agree or disagree with you because.

So you can see in all those prompts, they are pushing you towards coming up with reasons for your ideas.

Now, can you please pause the video while you have your discussion? I hope you enjoy the discussion.

I'm sure it's gonna be really, really interesting.

So, off you go.

So, welcome back.

That was a fascinating discussion.

Listen to what Sophia had to say.

"Overall, the poet's perspective on love is probably more negative than positive, but that's because she presents a realistic view of it.

And as Duffy points out in the poem, love can be extremely painful." How could we evidence this idea? How could we support this idea? Well, we might say something like this, that the purpose of the poem is arguably to be truthful about the reality of love.

So the point that the poet may be making is that romanticised portrayals of love create an idealistic view of romance that is inaccurate.

So, we are now onto the second learning cycle.

You've done some really interesting thinking and talking about the presentation of love and the reality of love in the first learning cycle.

And now we're going to look in more detail at tone.

And now I'd like you to reread the poem in full.

And as you read it, pay close attention to the tone of it and how the tone changes.

Another way of thinking about tone might be to think of the atmosphere or the mood that is created.

And one of the ways of understanding the tone of the poem is to kind of monitor your own responses.

How do you feel at different points in the poem? So, off you go now.

You are going to need to pause the video while you do that.

Off you go and reread the poem.

And I'm looking forward to hearing what you have to say.

So, welcome back.

This is our discussion point here, which is how does the tone change throughout the poem? Now, this is what Sophia thought.

She thought that "the tone fluctuates throughout the poem between soft and sincere to more defiant and foreboding." Now if you're sincere, you are genuine, you can be trusted, you are believable, your word is worth something.

And defiant, a defiant person is someone who refuses to follow rules.

And foreboding has a definite sense of menace to it.

So they were really interesting words that Sophia picked out, and I would like you to go back to the poem and label it with the different tones.

Where do you hear where the tone is soft? Where is it clearly being sincere and honest? Where does she sound defiant? And where is the hint of menace? So again, you're going to need to pause the video while you do that.

So now we're going to look back at the beginning of the poem.

It begins with a defiant tone.

The word "not" is used, like it's a refusal to do what's expected.

And I'd like you to consider what Duffy is trying to convey about love in this poem when she's using a defiant tone.

And Andeep said that he thinks "the speaker thinks that traditional symbols of love are cliched and disingenuous," meaning you don't really mean it.

And "she therefore wants to defy these traditions by presenting a realistic, rather than an idealistic view of love." And that might explain "why she opens the poem with such a defiant tone." Now what I'd like you to do is find another quotation which shows a defiant tone and also do the same kind of explanation that Andeep has done.

You might start with the same sentence starters, the speaker thinks, and she therefore wants, and this may be why.

So, please pause the video while you look for another quotation and explain the effects.

So, do you agree with what Andeep says? He found that you could have chosen line 11, where the speaker states her commitment to being truthful about love.

And the defiant tone here perhaps demonstrates her disapproval of romanticised presentations of love that she feels aren't representative of the reality of it.

So, she's not being defiant about love, she's being defiant about the presentations of love.

So, we're going to look at another word.

Aren't you impressed at how much you can get out of a single word? This is going to be talking about when the speaker uses the pronoun "you." Who do you think she is addressing? You might say that she's addressing her valentine, her lover.

But what I want you to do is to highlight all the time the speaker addresses her lover directly and how does her tone change each time she addresses the lover? And how does her manner change each time she refers to the gift of the onion? So you are going to be looking for the word "you" and you are going to be thinking about the tone, and you're going to be tracking that change of tone.

You are going to need to pause the video while you think about that.

So, do that now.

I look forward to hearing what you have to say.

So, let's look at these words and look at how they change the tone.

"I give," "here," "I give," "take," "if." And I'd like you to discuss this.

At which points in the poem is the lover offered a choice? At which points in the poem is the lover not given a choice? And how does this shape our understanding of Duffy's view of love? So pause the video while you think about your answers to those three questions.

Off you go.

So, welcome back.

What interesting things you've had to say.

I'm gonna share some ideas that I've heard before about "Valentine" and about this question of choice.

And you see if you agree with them.

Now the speaker starts off by giving her lover an onion gently and explaining what the gift is and why she has given it.

The speaker then takes a slightly more forceful tone and insists that the lover takes it through the word "here." She then repeats the same phrase and restates that she's giving her lover a present.

And she ends with insisting and commanding that the lover takes the gift, but she does give her lover the option of marriage.

So, do you think the lover would accept the gift? Why? Why not? Pause the video while you have that discussion.

So, welcome back.

Again, a fascinating discussion.

I'm sure there were many of you who thought that the lover would accept the gift and just as many who thought that the lover would not.

So, that leads us to this interesting question about consent.

How is consent presented in the poem? Again, pause the video while you have that discussion.

If you're working on your own, just make notes in response to that question.

So, let's have a check for understanding.

Which of these words creates the most commanding tone in the poem? Is it A, give, B, take, C, here and D, if? And in order to do this, you will need to look at these words in the context of the poem.

So look at the poem, find those words, have a think about that question.

The answer is take.

The imperative take.

So Sophia makes this point, that "this is a poem about love, and yet the last word in the poem is the word 'knife.

'" So I would you like you to discuss that point she made.

What kind of tone is created at the end of the poem and why might the poem want to end on this image? Have a think.

Now, you might have said something like this, that the poet creates a foreboding tone by ending the poem with the image of a knife.

And her intentions, that perhaps she ends with this image to illustrate the harmful nature of love, especially in the wrong hands.

Like a knife, love can wound and destroy.

So perhaps she's leaving the reader with a warning about the danger of love.

Were your ideas similar to that? And remember, any ideas that get put up in this lesson, feel free to take them and borrow them and adapt them so they fit in with your own interpretation.

Now, it's time for you to gather all your thoughts and put them into an analytical response.

This is the question you are going to answer.

How does Duffy present love in the poem? Now, in your response, you could mention Duffy's realistic presentation of love, the speakers disdain for cliched expressions of love, the changing tone throughout the poem and how this reflects the many different presentations or kinds of love, the defiant opening, and the foreboding ending.

Now, you need to make sure that you evidence your ideas with quotations from the poem and that you support them further by linking them back to what you know about Duffy.

So, you are going to need to pause the video while you do that.

So when you are ready, off you go.

Now, before you do a reflection on your own response, I'd like to you to look at what Jun wrote.

He was able to discuss Duffy's defiant tone confidently, but he struggled to link it to what he knows about Duffy.

He did say this, he said that, "I know that Duffy likes to give voice to marginalised or unconventional figures, characters, and perspectives," which is quite right.

So how does the fact that Duffy likes to give voice to marginalised figures, or lesser explored perspectives, link to the defiant tone in this poem? So, have a think about that, because you would be able to help Jun improve that answer.

Well, he could have included something like this.

Duffy likes to give voice to marginalised or lesser explored perspectives, which could explain why she portrays love in an unconventional way.

Duffy seems to be frustrated with cliched expressions of love, suggesting that they limit people's freedom of expression.

Thus, through the poem, and through her defiant tone, Duffy defies the romanticised presentations of love we see in romantic films and novels, choosing instead to present us with a perspective that is often silenced or disregarded, the realistic view of love.

So when you now go and look at your piece of writing, can you make a special note to look for whether you linked back to Duffy's passion for championing marginalised voices and perspectives? You're going to need to pause the video while you do that.

And then when you are ready, come back to the lesson.

So now, before we say goodbye, I'd like to summarise what you have been learning today.

In the beginning, love is presented as nurturing, caring, and pure.

Love can bring light, intimacy, and connection to a person's life.

In the middle of the poem, Duffy presents love as something that many people strive to protect, something precious and valuable.

The darker side to love is conveyed in the final stanza, with the poet suggesting that the lasting effects of love are irreversible and potentially harmful.

Now through her defiant tone, Duffy defies romanticised presentations of love, choosing instead to present us with a realistic portrayal of love that is often ignored.

I'd like to thank you for coming to the lesson today, for your focus, for your discussions, for your hard work.

I wish you a brilliant rest of the day, and I look forward to seeing you again soon in another lesson.

Bye for now.