Carol Ann Duffy was born in Glasgow, Scotland and raised in a working class family. She published her first poems at age 16 after being encouraged by a teacher. The poem "Not a Red Rose" uses an onion as an untraditional symbol of love, describing how it will make the reader cry like a lover and how its scent lingers like the memory of a kiss. The onion is offered in place of traditional love gifts like cards or candy to represent a more truthful expression of love.

1. By Carol Ann Duffy

2.  Carol Ann Duffy was born in
Glasgow. She grew up in a working
class family that believed in social
change and the politics of protest
 One of her schoolteachers
encouraged her to write poetry.
So she published her first poems Other Poems :
at sixteen Stealing
'War Photographer‘
 Duffy attended university in ‘Before You Were Mine’
Liverpool
 Then she lived in London for 15
years and now lives near
Manchester
 Carol Ann Duffy works as a
lecturer in poetry
 Duffy likes to challenge normal
views with new ideas and

3.  Duffy changes the roses to an onion.
 The poem is not about the onion, about the
love, honest.
 She is talking personally to the reader.

4.  The poet views love as healthy so long as it
avoids both tacky romance and marriage. No
rhyme in the poem but sound like a message to
a lover

5.  When was the poem published?
 Who wrote the poem?
 What was the untraditional symbol of the love
she used?
 Where was Carol Ann Duffy Born?

6.  Not a red rose or a satin heart.
I give you an onion.
It is a moon wrapped in brown paper.
It promises light
like the careful undressing of love.
Here
It will blind you with tears
like a lover.
It will make your reflection
a wobbling photo of grief.
I am trying to be truthful.
Not a cute card or a kissogram.
I give you an onion.
Its fierce kiss will stay on your lips,
possessive and faithful
as we are,
for as long as we are.
Take it.
Its platinum loops shrink to a wedding-ring,
if you like.
Lethal.
Its scent will cling to your fingers,
cling to your knife.

7.  Words used in this poem to explain love:
 Fierce
 Grief
 Lethal
 Blind
 Possessive
 Shrink

8.  Not a red rose or a satin heart.
I give you an onion. Traditional but
unoriginal Valentine
It is a moon wrapped in brown paper. gifts. Unromantic!
It promises light Very untraditional
valentine gift! But
like the careful undressing of love. her symbol for love.
The image of the
‘wrapped’ onion is an
like a gift. extended metaphor
throughout the
Peeling an onion like
poem.
lovers undressing.

9.  Here Passing the gift (onion) to
her lover
It will blind you with tears
like a lover. Onion make you cry
It will make your reflection and so can love (happy
and sad tears). Crying
a wobbling photo of grief. makes things ‘wobbly’.
Moments in love can
make you wobble too.

10. You have to be
 I am trying to be truthful. honest to make
Alliteration
relationships work
Not a cute card or a kissogram.
Alliteration
Again, commercial but
unoriginal Valentine
Gifts

11.  I give you an onion. Like ‘I give you this ring’
Its fierce kiss will stay on your lips,
possessive and faithful The taste of an
as we are, onion lingers,
so does a
for as long as we are. Like a memory of a
relationshi kiss.
p, the
length is
tats .

12.  Take it. More demanding now.
Its platinum loops shrink to a wedding-ring,
if you like. The poet thinks that marriage can
run a relationship, maybe she had
a bad experience? Painful, deadly
Lethal. words. Hurt can fling to you
Its scent will cling to your fingers,
cling to your knife.