St Valentine's Night - Abse

St Valentine's Night is a poem by Abse about desire, this is evident through the first stanza. 'Eros' is the God of love, this links into the theme of the poem which is Valentine's Day. This also gives us a representation of something rather erotic, this conveys this idea or drive to reproduce in life and through this creates a desire to have sex. We also get a reference to Cupid through the quote 'you let your arrows fly'. Of course Cupid represents desire itself. This can be interpreted in two ways, it can act as an euphemism for sex, which is the main theme of this poem. Or it could be interpreted through this idea that there is hope for love in the future. The arrow links to the poem 'Here' by Larkin where the arrow is used for the same purpose. Abse represents an interesting aspect to the representation of women in this poem. He comments that the woman is 'flirting with a cloud'. This gives across the connotations that this woman is willing to have sex, it gives us an interesting aspect into how women are being represented in this poem and goes against the normal stereotypes of what a woman should be like when it comes to sex. It is normally the man who is dominant and willing to try it, however in this case it is the woman. The reference to 'Black Magic Chocolates' act as symbolism for sex within the modern era. These chocolates were often used in the 1960s for men to entice women into having sex with them. So we get the connotations that this is what has happened in this poem.

'Homage' in the second stanza gives across a rather romantic feel to the idea of this couple having sex. After all Homage literally means a special offering of love. The description of the woman eating chocolates 'unwrapping, the soft-centered' acts a metaphor for the woman's desire to have sex with the man. The man is described as 'St Valentine' himself, which conveys that the woman views him as a holy man and strongly reinforces the idea of the desire the two have for one another to have sex.

The last stanza conveys a more philosphical message to this poem, similar to the technique Larkin uses in many of his poems. We are given a reference to 'Thantos' which conveys a personification of death, that death itself drives us and gives us the desire to live and die. We also get the underlying message that Abse is trying to convey in this poem through when he comments 'Thou shalt die'. This represents the view that Abse believes that if you can't love you will die. Love completes you and gives you the desire to love and experience romance in life. This is different to many of Larkin's poems where love is presented negatively, where there is no hope for it.