Stevie Smith
Stevie Smith
Florence Margaret Smith, known as Stevie Smithwas an English poet and novelist...
NationalityBritish
ProfessionPoet
Date of Birth20 September 1902
needs live-simply ifs
You must have some money if you are going to live simply. It need not be much, but you must have some.
people may fancy
Truth is far and flat, and fancy is fiery; and truth is cold, and people feel the cold, and they may wrap themselves against it in fancies that are fiery, but they should not call them facts; and, generally, poets do not; they are shrewd, they feel the cold, too, but they know a hawk from a handsaw, a fact from a fancy, as none knows better.
strong nice bye
My friendships, they are a very strong part of my life, they are as light as gossamer but also they are as strong as steel. And I cannot throw them off, nor altogether do with them or without them. And I love them at the point where they say: It is nice to see you again. And I love them too at the point when they say: Good-bye, come again soon. The rhythm of friendship is a very good rhythm.
grief doors separation
Death's not a separation or alteration or parting; it's just a one-handled door.
death thinking goes-on
If there wasn't death, I think you couldn't go on.
lying may bed
If I lie down on my bed I must be here, But if I lie down in my grave I may be elsewhere.
running hands long
The world is come upon me, I used to keep it a long way off, But now I have been run over and I am in the hands of the hospital staff.
tired ideas want
But one wants the idea of Death, you know, as something large and unknowable, something that allows a person to stretch himself out. Especially one wants it if one is tired. Or perhaps what one wants is simply a release from sensation, from all consciousness for ever....
unhappy doe speak
Why does my muse only speak when she is uhnhappy? She does not, I only listen when I am unhappy.
war heart swings
My heart was full of softening showers, I used to swing like this for hours, I did not care for war or death, I was glad to draw my breath.
depressing character interesting
These thoughts are depressing I know. They are depressing, I wish I was more cheerful, it is more pleasant, Also it is a duty, we should smile as well as submitting To the purpose of One Above who is experimenting With various mixtures of human character which goes best, All is interesting for him it is exciting, but not for us. There I go again. Smile, smile, and get some work to do Then you will be practically unconscious without positively having to go.
fall water hatred
It is the privilege of the rich To waste the time of the poor To water with tears in secret A tree that grows in secret That bears fruit in secret That ripened falls to the ground in secret And manures the parent tree Oh the wicked tree of hatred and the secret The sap rising and the tears falling.
soul tolls lions
Oh Lion in a peculiar guise, Sharp Roman road to Paradise, Come eat me up, I'll pay thy toll With all my flesh, and keep my soul.
dark night shy
Into the dark night Resignedly I go, I am not so afraid of the dark night As the friends I do not know, I do not fear the night above As I fear the friends below.