1. Creating Revision Notes (PEE)
Valentine
Creating Revision Notes (PEE)

2. Picking the right question
Picking the right question and understanding what it is asking you to do is, as always, the key to producing a good essay at Higher level.
When you are collating your PEE-style notes, you should make them relevant to any possible questions.
Try to get used to creating a consistent structure for your notes.

3. Sample intro
“Valentine” by Carol Ann Duffy is a poem which deals with the common theme of love and romance in an unconventional manner. Duffy’s use of poetic devices such as symbolism, word choice, structure and anti climax allows her to explore the theme of love in a much more realistic and honest way than the reader expects.

4. Intro checklist
You should be at a point now where writing an introduction for a Critical Essay has become formulaic and almost robotic
Have you?
Stated the poet/author/playwright’s name 
Stated the title of the poem in “inverted commas”
Made clear the specific techniques you will focus on to answer the question set?
Used the words of the questions to make explicitly clear what you are setting out to do in the essay?

5. PQE Notes 1 P E
The title of the poem sets up expectations of a traditional love poem. As a reader, we might expect a poem which is sentimental and idealistic about love, as this is the conventional approach towards Valentine’s Day. However, Duffy undermines these expectations immediately:
“Not a red rose or a satin heart./(I give you an onion).”
…This rejection quickly establishes the unconventional nature of the poem as it can be seen as a criticism of society’s insistence on buying very stereotypical, commercialised gifts which have no real meaning or symbolism.
By beginning the poem with a negative (“not”), Duffy quickly establishes an unexpectedly negative tone which undermines the reader’s expectations. This feeling of anti climax is compounded by the speaker’s rejections of ‘traditional’ Valentine’s Day gifts such as roses and satin hearts.

6. PQE Notes 2 P E
“I give you an onion/ It is a moon wrapped in brown paper./It promises light”.

7. PQE Notes 3 “Here./ It will blind you with tears/like a lover.” Or
“It will make your reflection a wobbling photo of grief.”

8. PQE Notes 4 P E
“Possessive and faithful/as we are,/for as long as we are.”

9. PQE Notes 5 “Take it. Its platinum loops shrink to a wedding-ring,
If you like.”

10. PQE Notes 6 P E
“Lethal.
Its scent will cling to your fingers, cling to your knife.”

11. Conclusion
No new stuff!