Should poets’ bicycle-pump the human heart or squash it flat?

Man’s love is of man’s life a thing apart: Girls aren’t like that The above lines are written by:

The correct answer is Kingsley Amis.

The quoted lines are from the poem titled "A Bookshop Idyll", written by the English novelist, poet, and critic Kingsley Amis (1922-1995).
Amis was a prominent figure of "The Movement," a mid-20th-century group of English writers that also included contemporaries like Philip Larkin, Donald Davie, and John Wain. The writers of this group were known for their anti-romantic, witty, and realistic approach to poetry, focusing on everyday life and themes in structured, traditional forms.

In "A Bookshop Idyll," the narrator browses through poetry anthologies in a bookshop, comparing the distinct styles and thematic focuses of male and female poets.
The lines:
"Should poets’ bicycle-pump the human heart or squash it flat?
Man’s love is of man’s life a thing apart: Girls aren’t like that"
showcase Amis's characteristic humor and skepticism. He mockingly questions whether poets should exaggerate emotional experiences ("bicycle-pump the human heart") or minimize them ("squash it flat"), while referencing Lord Byron's famous line from Don Juan to satirize the different ways men and women approach love and relationships.