In the poems 'Valentine' by Carol Ann Duffy, symbol used to develop our understanding of the idea of love is 'an onion' and in 'This is love' by Karlo Mila, symbol used is 'a plant'. These symbols are extended metaphors used to express the reality of love.
In 'Valentine', the symbol of an onion is "a moon wrapped in brown paper". This tells us that in order to get to love, some work has to be done. If you take a look at an onion, it is first covered with brown coating. To get to the actual onion, you have to peel off this coating. The peeling off this coating, finally brings you to the actual onion, the kind where you can actually do something with it like eat it. You would not find anyone eating an onion with the brown skin still on, so in the same way a moon wrapped in brown paper is definitely worthless and dark. This is not to say that love is worthless and dark, but rather in order to get to it, you have to find a way of peeling that brown coating to get to the good part of it where you can actually embrace it with light.
However 'Valentine' also states "it will blind you with tears". With this quote Duffy is been absolute about the idea of love not been all happiness, joy and laughter but rather there are times when tears has to be shed. The little strong sting from an onion juice makes you cry in the same way, a little misconception with love can definitely blind you with tears. If you think about it more, when you cut a little slice or piece of an onion there are small amounts of onion juice. Now depending on the way you cut it, if you cut it mercilessly with careless attention then you will send bits of onion juice in the air, they will sting your eye and then with no control, your eyes starts watering. How does this connect to love? If you do not cut your love properly with a careful eye, respect and attention, then your love will be blinded fulled with uncontrollable tears.
In 'This is Love', the symbol of a plant is "seeds sown in the hopeful spring". In this case, the seeds been sown is the beginning of love in the hopeful spring. This gives us the impression that we plant love, hopeful that it grows. This emphasizes some kind of risk of doing something and just hoping that the end result is positive. This quote is also followed by "hiccups of hope". The 'hic' is the little unexpected moments of doubt, time spent wondering if the love (seeds) will blossom in the end. It could also mean little hints of flourishness and happiness, which is more on the positive side.
Mila also states that "love is the watering, the watching, the pruning, the tending, the providing of new buckets and the finding of new doorsteps". This metaphor is strongly linked to how we take care of plants. We water our plants so it does not die, we watch it to make sure no one comes and take it away and we prune it to make it look perfect. With love, we water or shower it with romance so it does not die, we watch it carefully to make sure we stay honest with each other, and that no one comes in between that bond and we also shape it in a way that we show that affection towards each other to obtain that perfect look. 'the providing of new buckets' is the adapting to changes and coming up with new solutions to mend it and 'the finding of new doorsteps' is the new stages we take on in life. Just like how a small plant outgrows its bucket, love grows and we need new buckets to put it into.
To conclude, in the poems 'Valentine' by Carol Ann Duffy and 'This is Love' by Karlo Mila, an idea they both discuss about is love. Symbols like 'an onion' is used in 'Valentine' and symbol of 'plant' is used in 'This is Love' as an extended metaphor to make us understand that love is something you work for and take care of with a careful eye.
