1st Date She and He
The poem is written by Wendy Cope. She is a contemporary poet and her poems are mostly light hearted and involve a lot of humour. First Date She and First Date He is a classic comparison between a male and female perspective on their first date. It is effectively two poems that are connected.
In the monologue of ‘She’, the female narrator talks about why she said she liked classical music. It is clear that she is trying to impress her date, to make him think that she is cultured and classy. She has insecurities which He did not even notice ‘my brow is acceptably high’. She doesn’t like to lie and she admits this in the line ‘it wasn’t exactly a lie’. She tries to defend herself but there is a little lie associated with her comment. The allusion to classical musicians ‘Vivaldi and Bach’ shows that she wants to come out as interesting. ‘half dark’ is a metaphorical comparison to their relationship since both of them are not entirely honest with each other. The superlative ‘hardest’ further implies that she is interested in him and tries to impress him.