In choosing two poems to compare towards each other with the same author, I chose Carol Ann Duffy. I did not pick this author for any particular reason, I picked her because I procrastinated to write this blog and she was the first Author i found in the table of contents twice.  Although the poem "Mrs Darwin" is an extremely short poem consisting of only five lines, I believe it greatly compares to Duffy's other poem "Valentine".  They both compare someone of interest to something that some people would consider nasty or not highly thought of.

To start off, the poem "Mrs Darwin" is my new favorite poem because of the fact that it is very short and simple to read, but the poem does make sense and can be compared to "Valentine".  In the poem "Valentine" the narrator is clearly describing Valentines, not only because the title says, but in the first line it says "not a red rose or a satin heart"(Duffy 1), which are the most popular Valentine day gifts.  In this poem the narrator is explaining giving their Valentine an onion because it can help explain love better that anything else.  In my opinion I do not believe the narrator is literally giving their Valentine an onion, but explaining that if they gave them an onion it would show how the love they share goes.  On the other hand, in the poem "Mrs Darwin" not much can be talked about because it is such a short poem, but there is still a connection between the two.

Now although this poem is not talking about giving anyone a gift, and it does not happen on Valentines day, they can be looked at in the same way if you do not look at them in a literal way.  In "Mrs Darwin" it says, "I said to him / Something about that Chimpanzee over there / reminds me of you" (Duffy 3-5).  Now clearly the narrator in this poem is a female, and in the poem "Valentine" I also believe it is a female because of the way the onion is explained in great detail, and typically men do not think that way.  The comparison of the two poems is the way the narrator compares the onion to love in "Valentine" and the way the Chimpanzee is compared to a person in "Mrs Darwin".  The only reason that these two poems are not mirror images of each other is because "Mrs Darwin" is such a short poem, it does not go into great detail of how the Chimpanzee is being compared.  Therefor, it is up to the reader to put the pieces together and understand what the author is saying.  In my opinion she is comparing the Chimpanzee to the man in the way he acts, this could be in a bad way or in a good way. In respect to the author Carol Ann Duffy, these are both two well written poems and both keep your mind thinking because of the many meanings they can have.