genuine affection/attraction vs love bombing?

hey!
sooo...connected with a guy on hinge a few wks ago and seem to have totally hit it out of the park with him. we're in different unis but same broad field (literature) and both have the same broad aspiration to work in academia (i'm a phd, he's mst and applying). we've got a huge amount in common and conversation is really fun.
we met for lunch last week and it was great!! (he brought me my fav flowers oml) the conversation was literally non-stop. we wound up staying together for about twelve hours between the restaurant, some bookshops and the bar. he got his train home around midnight and texted after to essentially apologise for not kissing me, and saying he hoped we could revisit the issue if i were up to see him again. we arranged a second date the same night for next week and we've again just been talking very regularly since. (although not non-stop, since we're kind of jokingly in the habit of exchanging "letters" at this point -- just looong ass paragraphs about different things)
anyway...we've started calling on the phone this week and we've been like 3-4hrs each time -- like last night we chatted for like 2hrs and then watched my fav movie over call while we were going to sleep. he's (i think?) JOKINGLY very flirtatious; we're both massively into poetry and he often sends very poetic compliments; we had a brief convo about love languages (it kind of came up) and he said he's given to acts of service + very poetic declarations of affection but said if i found that to be too much to tell him bc he worries he comes across too strong, but i've been taking it lightly and reciprocating in kind, and i've found it really sweet.
my question is, how do i know if he's into me into me, or if it's actually like, love bombing or something? i'll admit that i have very very poor self esteem and i do kind of struggle to understand someone being this into me...i had one very negative situationship early in my undergrad that's kind of left me struggling with being avoidant, and this is really the first time i've kind of connected with someone since. i suppose i'm just not sure what's "normal" if that makes sense.
tl;dr: connected with a guy who seems very into me, but a little worried that for various reasons i wouldn't be able to tell genuine affection from love bombing; poor self esteem and negative past experiences make it very difficult for me to accept/understand affection. wondering if anyone has any advice on how to defo spot love bombing?
thanks in advance <3

Doesn't sound like love bombing tbh, this sounds more like a shared passion. That fact he has the awareness to ask if you're ok with it and that some people might find it strong implies it's genuine.
IMO Someone that was love bombing would never stop to think if they were being appropriate or not and any challenge would likely be met with some form of aggression 'I do so much for you and THIS is how you treat me!?' etc.

He sounds like a sweetheart and is interested in you! It doesn’t sound like love bombing, but sometimes you can never really tell (that’s the hardest part, especially when it hits you later on). I would be a bit on guard, but not to the point where you’re closed off around him. Make sure you know his intentions and I would take his word for it, see where this takes you! Hope all goes well for the two of you, you sound like a lovely couple!

Just sounds like two people who are super into each other to be honest. A lot of people are like this in the early stages of a relationship, it’s fine if it is welcome and being reciprocated.