Note #3: First Love by Jan Owen

First Love

Jan Owen

It happened in Physics,

reading a Library art book under the desk,

(the lesson was Archimedes in the bath)

I turned a page and fell

for an older man, and anonymous at that,

hardly ideal –

he was four hundred and forty-five,

I was fourteen.

‘Eureka!’ streaked each thought

(I prayed no-one would hear)

and Paradise all term

was page 179

(I prayed no-one would guess).

Of course

my fingers, sticky with toffee and bliss,

failed to entice him from his century;

his cool grey stare

fastened me firmly in mine.

I got six overdues,

suspension of borrowing rights

and a D in Physics.

But had by heart what Archimedes proves.

Ten years later I married:

a European with cool grey eyes,

a moustache,

pigskin gloves.

In the poem "First Love" by Jan Owen, the humorous idea of falling in love with a science subject suggests the uncontrollable and attachable human emotions.  The low and easy diction helps explain the chronological order of the love relationship to the "older man...four hundred and forty-five. And I was fourteen."  The age difference is not the only eye-catching thing; the fact the narrator fell deeply in love with his "cool grey stare" illustrates the beginning of true, innocent love.  First love never fails to be special, and the narrator never forgot how special her first love was because after ten years of falling in love with the cool grey eyes in the book, she married a "European with cool grey eyes, a moustache, [and] pigskin gloves."  The simplicity and considerate diction illustrates the easiness and unforgettable first love.