Blond Boys - Dannie Abse

From looking at the poem of Blond Boys we see that it is a memory poem and contains the theme of romance also. From within the beginning of the poem we see that the persona is completely in love with this girl known as Eva Jones but is placed as being negative due to the fact that she does not love him back.
We see how much the persona loved this girl due to various words such as "first shy love", "I held my breath" and "forever". From these words we see that the persona is a shy and shows us the various emotions the persona is feeling informing us that we can easily relate towards the poem much easier unlike Larkins. We also see that the persona hides away and is really a watcher when describing her on her impressive bike and therefore is a link to Larkin for he too observes within the poem, The Whitsun Weddings. This poem and The Whitsun Weddings both link together for they both portray the sense of love towards a persona and also the persona observing. In TWW we see that Larkin (the persona) is watching this young couple and that their is the knowledge of this being a young couple being married showing excitement towards the readers. Abse' poem links into this for the persona is also watching, but this time watching the person he loves not the people. There is also the link between the notion that the persona and the girl are young, like the couple within TWW.
Also from within Abse poem we see that they were close and their was a great bond together, similar to the poem Love Songs In Age with the mother and son bond they had together.
Within the final stanza of the poem we then see the love dying drastically as the persona is rejected and see the more jealous side towards blond boys.
Altogether we see that a key poem that links into these themes would be Wild Oats due to the thought of rejection and loss occuring within the end but also the fact of love blossoming at the beginning.
There is also the notion of the choice between two lovers. Unlike Larkin we see that it was he who had to choose between two lovers whilst with Abse he was one of the choices. Although both poems are similar with the notion of choice, we see that each poet writes about it differently, the side of being in control and power (Larkin) and the wonder of being chosen (Abse)