Hello everybody and welcome to today's lesson.

My name is Miss Holiday and I'll be teaching you today.

In today's lesson, we're gonna be reading Carol Ann Duffy's poem "Valentine," which is one of our love poems in the anthology.

I'm really excited to see what you make of it as Duffy presents us with an unconventional view of love.

For today's lesson, you will need your EDUQAS poetry anthology.

So if you haven't got yours in front of you, now would be a great time to pause the video while you run to get it.

Brilliant, you've got it.

So let's get started.

So today's lesson is called Understanding Valentine, and by the end of today's lesson, you will be able to understand how Duffy presents the speaker's views on love.

But first, here are some words that you'll need in order to unlock today's learning, starting with the word cliche.

Now, a cliche is an opinion or a gesture that is overused and lacks originality.

Unconventional means not conforming to what is usually or typically done or expected.

The word cynical means quite distrustful of other people's sincerity.

To subvert means to go against something, and finally, to romanticise means to view something in an unrealistic or idealistic way.

These words are going to be essential to unlocking today's learning.

So if you're not sure you'll be able to remember them, then feel free to pause the video and jot any of them down.

Here's today's lesson outline.

We're gonna begin by reading the poem before we move on to looking at how Duffy presents us with an unconventional expression of love.

But let's start, first of all by reading the poem.

So I'd like to begin with a quick discussion, and I'd like you to think, well, how can we show love to other people? How can we give love to other people? So what I'm going to invite you to do now is pause the video while you have a go at coming up with some ideas of how we can show other people love.

You can do this in groups, if you've got people with you today, if you are working independently, then don't worry.

You can just jot some ideas down or brainstorm them in your head, pause the video and have a go at thinking of some ways we can show love now.

Fantastic and some really lovely and thoughtful suggestions there.

Here are some of the ones that I heard that I liked the best.

So we can tell people we love them quite simply, and we can say really kind things to them.

We can compliment them, we can tell them things that we love about them.

We can also show people physical affection and intimacy so we can hug them, we can kiss them, we can hold their hand.

Okay, all of these are physical kinds of affection that show our love and appreciation for somebody.

We can bring them gifts, okay? We can bring them flowers, we could bring them teddies.

I heard quite a few people mention this idea.

And absolutely you can bring people that you love gifts.

And finally, yes, we can do nice things for them.

We can make them a cup of tea, we can make their bed, we can nip to the shop for them and get them a new carton of milk.

All of these things are small things that we can do to show our love and appreciation for somebody.

So thank you very much to the students who contributed those, their brilliant suggestions.

So the poem that we are doing today is a formal expression of love, and its title is "Valentine." So I'd like to just discuss, well, what is a Valentine? Okay, what is Valentine's Day? What is it all about? And what kinds of traditions do people tend to have on Valentine's Day? How do they celebrate it? So I'm gonna invite you now to pause the video while you consider those questions.

Again, you can discuss this in groups or you can consider them independently if that's how you're working today.

But I'd like you to pause the video while you consider those questions, now.

Fantastic discussions and really well done.

So as many of you pointed out, Valentine's Day takes place every year on the 14th of February.

It's a day dedicated especially to celebrating our love for others.

Traditionally, it's considered a day for celebrating romantic love.

However, some people celebrate the day with their friends and family.

On Valentine's Day, people tend to give each other cards and small gifts like chocolates, flowers, or teddies to show their appreciation and commitment to those people that they love.

So really well done to those of you who came up with those ideas.

You are absolutely right.

So as I said, if the poem's title is "Valentine," who might the speaker be in this poem? Who might the speaker be addressing? What ideas or thoughts might be being expressed in this poem? And finally, what do you expect the poet's attitude towards love to be? So we'll hear what we're doing is making predictions about what we might expect to find in the poem based on its title, and that can be a really useful way to approach a poem that you haven't seen before and to generate some ideas about what you think that poem might be about.

So this is a really useful, not only today, but moving forward every time you encounter a poem that you have not previously read before.

So I'm gonna invite you now to pause the video while I discuss those questions again with the people around you or jot some ideas down independently if that's how you'd prefer to work today.

So pause the video and off you go.

Fantastic discussions.

Brilliant, and it was lovely to hear many of you saying that the speaker might be somebody who's in love and they might be speaking to their lover and that they might have a really positive view of romance because they've called the poem Valentine.

And we know that Valentine's Day is a celebration of love, some very, very interesting ideas, and thank you for those.

Let's see if you are right.

So onto the really exciting part now where you're going to read this poem for the first time in full, you will find this in your anthology, so make sure that you've got your anthology open please on the page that has "Valentine," on it.

Once you have read this poem, we are then going to discuss some ideas and key moments in more detail.

Before you start reading, I just wanted to share some really useful tips with you when you are reading a poem.

Now remember that poems are designed to be read aloud.

So if at all possible, try and read this poem out loud.

Obviously, if you are in a room with other people, this might not be as manageable.

However, if you're working from home or you are working on your own, then please do take the opportunity to read this poem out loud as it will really enhance your understanding of it.

A good reading of the poem is a good understanding of the poem.

Now, when you are reading that poem out loud, or even if you're reading it in your head, it's really important that you pay really close attention to the poets use of punctuation as this will inform the tone of voice that you use when you read this poem, but also the pace.

And both of those things are really important when you're reading a poem and trying to understand what it's about.

So do make sure that you are paying particularly close attention to the poets use of punctuation.

I'm going to invite you now to pause the video while you go and read this fantastic poem.

I'm really excited to see what you think of it.

So I'm going to set you off now to do just that.

So pause the video and off you go to read this poem.

Fantastic reading, and it was great to see that many of you actually had the time to read the poem twice, and that's brilliant because the more times you read a poem, the better you understand it.

So what we're gonna do now that you've read the poem is revisit the earlier questions that I asked you where I asked you to predict what you think you might expect to find in the poem.

We're going to revisit those questions and see if you can answer them having now read the poem.

So I'd like you to consider again, well, who might the speaker be? Who might the speaker be addressing? What ideas or thoughts are expressed in the poem, and what do you think the poet's attitude towards love is? So these are the exact same questions that I asked you earlier in the lesson that you predicted the answers to, and now you're going to clarify the answers using the poem you just read.

Now, you can revisit these questions as a discussion if you like.

If you are able to discuss these questions with people, that's brilliant.

If you are not, do not worry.

You can either jot some ideas down or you can just think about them in your head.

I'd like you to pause the video while you revisit those questions and see if you can clarify any of the answers.

Off you go.

Fantastic work.

So let's have a look at what you might have said.

So first of all, in terms of who the speaker might be and who they might be addressing.

Well, as Lucas points out, the speaker could very easily be the poet here, Duffy.

And she seems to be addressing her lover so much like other love poems. This is a poem written from a one lover to another.

Now, in terms of the ideas or the thoughts expressed in the poem, so as Alex points out here, the speaker expresses her love for her partner in quite an unconventional way.

So in a way that we are not used to seeing love expressed.

And in terms of the poet's attitude towards love.

Well, this shocked many of you because I know that in the initial activity, many of you said that you thought this poem would be kind of really enthusiastic about love.

But as Sophia pints out, the speaker seems to really value love, but they seem to really hate expressing it in this really cliched way.

And this poem itself is a very unconventional way of expressing love for somebody.

And we'll have a look at that in just a moment, but really well done if you managed to clarify the answers to any of those questions using the poem.

Great comprehension skills there.

So let's consider now the ideas that have been expressed in this poem in a little bit more detail.

Starting with a discussion as always.

So I'd like you to think, well, how do you think the speaker feels about traditional Valentine's gifts like this one in the picture? Okay, what present does she give to her lover and why does she give them that? So I'm going to invite you now to pause the video while you consider that question again with the people around you or thinking about it, independently if that's how you prefer to work today, pause the video and off you go.

Fantastic discussions, and really well done to those of you who identified that the speaker thinks that traditional Valentine's Day gifts are cliched and disingenuous, the speaker feels that these kinds of gifts do not really allow people to express their true feelings or represent the reality of love.

Perhaps the speaker feels that people are hiding behind these gifts, these traditional gifts and cliched gifts and not really expressing how they actually feel.

They're almost using other people's language and other people's ideas to express their love.

And the speaker seems to disapprove of that.

The speaker in this poem gives her lover an onion instead, as she feels that this better reflects the nature of their relationship.

So thank you very much to those of you who manage to identify that.

And let's have a look at that onion in a little bit more detail.

So we're going to start off unpicking this onion image by thinking first of all, well, what qualities of an onion could possibly reflect a relationship? So what I've done here is I've given you a grid, and I've listed the different qualities of an onion.

So for example, an onion has many layers.

Onions make your eyes water.

Raw onions leave a very strong taste in your mouth, the smell of an onion lingers on the skin.

And finally, onions are often cut into ring shapes.

And what I'd like you to do now is discuss with the people around you or consider independently how each of these qualities could reflect an aspect of a romantic relationship.

So for example, I'll do one for you, in terms of an onion having many layers, this could reflect the fact that as the relationship progresses, you might see a different side to the person.

Okay, you start to unpick their different layers and their complexities and what makes 'em tick, and that reflects the way in which you peel back layers of an onion.

So there's an example of the kind of comparison that I'm looking for.

I'd like you now to pause the video while you have a go at completing the rest of the comparisons yourself, thinking about how those qualities reflect the speaker's relationship.

Off you go.

Brilliant work.

And it was great to see so many of you having this really good understanding of how the onion is a really suitable metaphor for the speaker's relationship.

So in terms of onions making your eyes water, well, this could reflect the ups and downs of relationships.

People still cry in relationships, people in love still get upset because love is a really powerful emotion that has real capabilities to do damage even if you are still in that relationship.

So here that reflects the idea that relationships do have ups and downs.

Now, in terms of raw onions leaving a strong taste in your mouth, well, this could reflect this idea that the memories from relationships can be really hard to forget.

Now, in terms of the smell lingering on your skin, well, this can reflect the heartache and pain that can continue after a relationship has ended.

Some people can be really traumatised and scarred from their relationships, and this idea of the smell of the onion lingering on the skin really reflects that.

And finally, this idea that we cut onions into ring shapes, you know, if you cut an onion, it will fall automatically into ring shapes because it is made up of layers and that can reflect, or this is an allusion to wedding rings, the ultimate symbol of love and commitment.

So well done if you've got any of those ideas, brilliant unpicking of that metaphor there, fantastic work.

So I'd like to consider the poet's attitude towards love in a little bit more detail now.

So I'd like you to think, well, what kind of view of love is the poet presenting in this poem? And in order to help you decide, you might want to consider whether any of these words accurately describe Duffy's portrayal of love.

So we've got unrealistic, idealistic, painful, romanticised, honest, realistic, glamorised, and cliche.

So what I'm going to invite you to do now is pause the video while you have a discussion about what you think the poet's attitude towards love is and how they are presenting that and thinking about those words on screen, and whether they accurately represent Duffy's portrayal of love.

So pause the video and off you guys consider that, now.

Fantastic discussions.

We asked Alex, our oak pupil to do the same thing, and he really wanted to share his response with you.

So here's Alex's suggestion.

He says, "I think that the poet presents a realistic view of love in the poem, a love that is full of ups and downs.

The poet seems to accept that love can be as painful and hurtful as it can be fulfilling.

She seems to resent the cliched gifts and promises that couples make to one another, especially on Valentine's Day." So I really like this idea here of what the poet is criticising, which is kind of those cliched expressions of love, but also the fact that the poet is really passionate about love, but she just is passionate about presenting us with a very realistic of love.

So thank you to Alex and thank you to you for those discussions and contributions.

So let's check for understanding before we move on to our first task of the lesson.

True or false, the speaker doesn't seem to love her partner very much.

I'm going to invite you now to pause the video while you decide whether you think that statement is true or whether do you think that it's false.

Off you go.

Fantastic and well done if you selected false.

What I'm gonna ask you to do now is justify and explain why that answer is in fact false.

So I'd like you to read the two, just which you think is the correct one for the above statement being false.

Pause the video and off you go.

And a massive well done if you correctly selected A.

The speaker in fact does love their partner very much, but refuses to make promises of eternal love as they have a much more realistic view of it.

Thank you very much, and well done if you selected A.

So, onto our first task of the lesson now where we're going to consider the speakers shifting tone.

So as I've said, the tone of this poem does change as the poem progresses.

Here is each stanza of the poem represented by a grey box.

So you'll notice here that we have seven boxes because the poem has seven stanza's, we're going to consider how the tone changes as the poem progresses.

And in order to do that, you are going to label each stanza in your anthology with one or two words to describe the tone.

So for example, in stanza one, we get this quite firm tone.

Okay, the speaker has that almost defiant tone.

They're saying not this, okay, I'm not gonna do this.

I'm not gonna do this cliched expression of love that everybody else does.

Okay, and that's quite a firm and quite a defiant tone there.

So there's an example of how you might go about approaching this task.

As I said, you are labelling this in your anthology, so make sure you have that in front of you and you're ready to label.

I'm going to invite you now to pause the video while you have a go at labelling the tone for each stanza.

Off you go.

Fantastic work.

And here are some suggestions of some of the tones that you might have labelled.

So as we said, stanza 1 opens with that really firm tone.

We then still maintain that firm tone, but it kind of softens a little bit more in stanza 2.

Stanza 3 brings a very objective and candid tone, so quite a casual tone.

And we get that honest and firm tone, in stanza 4.

A condemning or scaling tone in stanza 5, stanza 6 brings a more passionate and protective tone.

And finally, stanza 7 ends much more ominously because it starts initially quite forceful, but then it softens in the middle of that stanza, but then it gathers momentum again and ends on quite a dark and very ominous and possessive tone there.

So really well done if you got those.

You didn't have to get the exact same words, but that's just the gist of how the tone changes throughout the poem.

So really well done for that.

So onto the second part of the lesson now, where we're gonna have a look at this idea of an unconventional expression of love.

And we're going to start, as always, with a discussion.

So I'd like you to think, well, what kind of person might have written this poem and what do you think that the poet might be like? I'm going to invite you now to pause the video while you discuss that with the people around you, or consider it independently.

Make sure you're providing a reason for your opinion.

Fantastic, and some great ideas raised there.

What we're going to do now is start exploring the context of the poet and why she wrote this poem.

So you can see whether you were right or not.

So first of all, Carol Ann Duffy is a Scottish poet and playwright, she's a feminist.

So she believes in the social, political, and economic equality of the sexes.

She believes that men and women should have equal rights and equal opportunities.

Duffy was the poet laureate until 2019, and that was a position she accepted to give recognition to other brilliant female poets.

Now in her poetry, Duffy likes to give voice to lesser heard or lesser recognised voices or perspectives.

And I'd like to consider that idea in a bit more detail.

So I'd like you to discuss, well, where do we see that idea in "Valentine"? What lesser recognised voice or perspective is Duffy giving voice to here? So I'm going to invite you now to pause the video while you consider those questions with the people around you or independently, however works best for you.

But off you go now.

Fantastic work and really well done, if like Sophia, you identified that in the poem, Duffy gives voice to the lesser act, knowledge, perspectives on love, the realistic perspective that acknowledges that actually love has both joy and misery, and it brings both to people.

Duffy provides us with a truthful portrayal of love, okay, that is probably less heard, especially on days like Valentine's Day when it's all very romanticised and idealised.

Okay, but what Duffy's bringing us here is a very raw and honest view of what love is actually like.

So thank you very much to Sophia for pointing out that that's the kind of marginalised or lesser recognised perspective that Duffy is giving voice to in this poem.

So let's check for understanding, which of the following statements about Duffy are true.

Is it A, that Duffy was offered the honour of Poet Laureate, but turned it down in 2019? Is it B Duffy likes to give voice to lesser heard characters or figures.

C, that Duffy is an English poet who spends a lot of time in Scotland? Or is it D that Duffy holds strong feminist views? I'm going to invite you now to pause the video while you make your answer selection.

Brilliant work, and congratulations if you selected B and D.

In her poetry and in her work, Duffy really likes to acknowledge some lesser heard perspectives.

And similarly, Duffy holds really strong feminist views.

And this is part of the reason that she accepted the Poet Laureate position in 2019.

So really well done if you managed to select B and D, you're right.

So I'd like you to discuss now, well, I'd like you to think about all the other love poems that you might have read, including things like the typical roses are red, violets are blue poem.

Okay, and I'd like you to think, well, how do these kinds of poems express love? What kinds of things do they compare people to, and what kinds of promises do they make? And how are the lovers described in these kinds of poems? So I'm gonna invite you now to pause the video while you have a go at answering those questions and reflecting on any other love poems that you might have read up till now.

So pause the video and off you go.

Fantastic ideas.

And what I basically asked you to do there is come up with a set of conventions that traditional love poetry adhere to.

So here are some of those conventions and ideas that you might might have raised.

So first of all, many of these love poems are in fact written to the lover.

In these love poems the speakers will often swear their devotion and commitment forever.

The speaker will outline everything that they love about their lover, and the speaker will express how their lover makes them feel.

And they'll often use natural imagery that to describe the lover's physical appearance.

So for example, they might compare them to a flower, or they might compare them to the sunshine or they might compare their voice to the sweetest melody of the hummingbird.

You know, that kind of thing.

They'll use natural imagery to kind of compare to their lovers physical and spiritual characteristics.

So really well done if you managed to come up with those conventions.

Brilliant work.

We are now going to use those conventions to consider how this poem is unconventional and doesn't adhere to these conventions.

So I'd like you to discuss now, well, which of these conventions does Duffy adhere to? And which of these conventions does she subvert? So which does she go against? And then I'd like to think, well, why does she subvert so many of these conventions of traditional love poetry? And then think, well, why do you think she wrote this poem in the way that she did? So some really complicated questions there, and that's why I've done this as a discussion task so that you can share ideas and bounce kind of suggestions off one another.

So ideally, if you are able to discuss this with somebody else, then please do that.

If you can't, please don't worry.

You can just have a go at considering these questions independently.

I know that you can still do it.

I've got every faith in you.

So I'd like you now to pause the video while you consider how Duffy adheres to and subverts those traditional conventions of love poetry.

Off you go.

Fantastic discussions.

Really well done.

And it was great to see so many of you completing that this activity with the poem open, looking at the lines, looking at those conventions that she subvert.

So really well done.

So here's what you might have said.

And to make it easier, I've put it in a grid for you.

So on the left you'll see that we have that list of conventions of traditional love poetry, and then on the right, we're going to explore how these conventions are either adhere to or subverted in the poem.

So let's start off with the convention that poems are usually written to the lover.

And actually this is one of the conventions that Duffy a adheres to.

The poem addresses the lover, okay? She offers her an onion, she offers them an onion, and she commands 'em throughout the poem, which shows that she's speaking directly to them.

Now, in terms of speakers, you showing their devotion, well, this is a convention that Duffy subverts, okay? In the poem, "Valentine," the lover promises devotion for as long as the love lasts.

Okay, she doesn't promise it forever.

And that's really significant.

And this is probably one of the things that Duffy kind of dislikes about Valentine's Day and finds disingenuous is this promise of forever.

Because perhaps she feels like, how can you guarantee somebody forever? You know, you don't know what's going to happen.

So it feels a little bit insincere.

So that is one of the conventions that she very much subverts in the poem, okay? And as I said, she promises the lover love for as long as they want it, and for as long as the love lasts.

Now, in terms of the speaker outlining everything they love about their lover, again, this is another convention that is subverted in "Valentine," because actually what the speaker does is instead of outlining everything they love about the the person they're in love with, they actually outline everything that the relationship can offer them both.

And tho that's both in a positive way, but also in a negative way.

Because remember, we get that really realistic view of love from this poem.

So again, in terms of make the speaker expressing how their lover makes them feel, well this is actually a convention that is subverted, okay? This is poem is about how her love might make her lover feel.

So it's not about how her lover makes her feel, it's about what she's going to make her lover feel.

Okay, and again, normally conventionally these would be all positive emotions.

But again, in this poem, Duffy's very honest, and she says, yeah, you know what? Love will make you cry.

Love will make you upset and hurt.

And that's just the way that love is.

So again, we get really realistic view of love here.

And finally, natural imagery is often in traditional love poems used to describe the lover's physical appearance.

And again, that is a convention that Duffy subverts in this poem because yes, she uses natural imagery, she uses an onion, okay? So arguably that is still natural imagery, but it's not the conventional natural imagery.

You know, she's not comparing her lover to a flower or comparing their love to a budding rose or whatever.

She's actually comparing their love to an onion, which is a very unconventional object to compare your relationship to, and actually the onion itself is used as a vehicle for expressing love.

So I'm sure that you can see that Duffy here really subverts the conventions of traditional love poems to give us this really unconventional expression of love.

So I'd like to consider that in a little bit more detail, and I'd like you to think, well, why does she subvert so many of the conventions of traditional love poetry? What is she trying to illustrate or achieve here? So I'm going to invite you now to pause the video while you reflect on that question again, either personally or in groups.

Off you go.

Fantastic discussions and well done to those of you that raised this idea, Duffy, perhaps subverts the conventions of traditional love poetry, because arguably, she wrote this poem to convey or portray the realities of relationships.

Perhaps Duffy felt that traditional love poems, like conventional Valentine's Day gifts, stifle people's expression and perpetuate untrue or misleading ideas about love.

So basically, perhaps stuffy felt that a lot of these kind of traditional gifts and even the symbolism of Valentine's Day kind of spreads this almost false view or perception of love that's not a hundred percent accurate.

And it's this perception that love is amazing all the time.

You know that everything's better when you are in love.

And because Duffy actually kind of goes against that and says, "Well, no, that's not an accurate depiction of love.

Love can be great and really uplifting, but it can also be really painful and harmful." And finally, in her poem, Duffy writes that she's endeavouring she's trying to be truthful, which could suggest that unlike other poets, Duffy is trying to portray a more realistic and less idealistic or romanticised depiction of love that is more representative of real life love, rather than the fairytale kinds of love that she perhaps feel that Valentine's Day and such other displays of love promotes.

Okay, so this is almost a rebellion against fairytale depictions of love 'cause here Duffy offers us this really unapologetically, realistic and unconventional expression of love.

So well done if you've got those ideas and if there's anything on screen that you think might be useful for your notes, please do feel free to pause the video and take any ideas that you like.

So to summarise the learning from today, 'cause there has been a lot.

The poem, "Valentine," is an unconventional love poem, which subverts the conventions of traditional love poems poem.

In the poem, the speaker gives her lover an onion and explains why this is a better metaphor for their relationship than a more conventional symbol like a rose.

Furthermore, the symbol of the onion represents both the joy in relationships, but also the pain and the suffering that people can endure.

Arguably, the poet feels that conventional romantic gifts are cliched and limit people's freedom of expression.

And finally, we know that Duffy's tone shifts throughout the poem, but she ends the poem with a more ominous tone perhaps to show the dangers of possessive love.

Thank you so much for coming to today's lesson.

It has been fascinating to discuss this poem with you, and it was great to see so many of you enjoying it as much as I do, as well.

Thank you for all your engagement and contributions, and I look forward to seeing you next time.

See you later.