'Blond Boys' by Dannie Abse

The poem...

In Stockholm
I saw my first shy love hobble by
hand in hand with her small blond grandson.

Eva Jones, remember me?
My acne. Your dimples.

When you rode your important Raleigh bike
to school, your skirt high,
I held my breath.

With heroic intensity of a 15 year old,
dared by you, I climbed the glass-crowned wall
and stole Mrs Humphreys' summer apples.

Oh the forever of an August Sunday evening
when near the back door's delinquent scent
of honeysuckle, forhead to forehead
I searched your searching eyes.

All the next week similitudes of love,
the jailer of reason,

until plain as the prose of a synopsis,
you bluntly said (with impressive sighs)
'You have a beautiful classy mind
but I find you physically unattractive -
and I prefer, um, blond boys besides.'

Commentary...

In this poem, the speaker describes his "first shy love" with somebody called "Eva Jones" and her rejecting him. It being described by the speaker as a shy love suggests that the speaker kept his love for Eva a secret.

The speaker's memory is triggered by seeing Eva "hobble" in "Stockholm" "with her small blond grandson". This suggests that this happened many decades after they had anything to do with one another. Perhaps Eva's grandson being blonde is relevant because it could suggest that she fell in love and made a family with someone and then had a blonde grandchild, as she preferred "blond boys", however obviously it's possible to have a blonde grandchild and your partner not be blonde.

The speaking asking "remember me?" suggests that Eva meant a lot more to the speaker when he was younger than he did to her as he clearly remembers her. The speaker's "acne" is a typical sign of being a teenager, so it suggests that at the time he was in love with Eva he was a teenager. Eva' had dimples and "dimples" are typically considered as being child-like and represent innocence and suggest a fresh, young face. Some people think dimples are very adorable, and perhaps because the speaker remembered this specific facial feature of Eva, he thought so too. I think overall any kind of relationship the speaker and Eva had was loving yet innocent, fun and light-hearted.

When Eva rode her "important Raleigh bike to school" and her "skirt (was) high" the speaker held his "breath", suggesting that he found her intriguing, desirable and felt almost overwhelmed by her presence, you can imagine the speaker feeling butterflies in his stomach whenever he sees her. The love the speaker felt for Eva seems superficial as according to the poem he didn't actually know much about her. It's suggested that the speaker's love for Eva was an infatuation and wasn't reciprocal.

The speaker felt "heroic intensity" and was "dared" by Eva to climb a wall and steal "Mrs Humphreys' summer apples", suggesting he was trying to impress Eva. The "heroic intensity" describes the way I can imagine the speaker was feeling when infatuated with Eva quite well as it being heroic makes me think of child story books and reflects the innocence of the love as well as the speaker's feelings being very strong and important to him at the time.

The speaker and Eva shared a "week similitudes of love". However, "bluntly" like a "synopsis", (which reinforces that the relationship was childlike and fictional), Eva ended it with the speaker because she found him "physically unattractive" and prefers "blond boys". To not be with somebody because you prefer blonde boys reemphasises the lack of seriousness of the relationship and how childlike they both were, the shallowness doesn't seem out of place because of this. Also, to bluntly say you don't want to be with a person because you find them "physically unattractive" is almost comical because often people don't admit that it's for that reason, partly or completely they wouldn't like to be in a relationship with a person. Instead they sugar-coated it because they don't want to hurt the person's feelings or come across as shallow, but as a child you are a lot more honest. However, I do sympathise with the speaker as he was wearing his heart on his sleeve, feeling hopelessly in love with Eva, so for her to so bluntly leave him after giving him hope would have made him feel shattered.
 

A Larkin poem which I feel best links to this poem is 'Wild Oats' because of the theme of love and rejection.