Stevie Smith
Stevie Smith
Florence Margaret Smith, known as Stevie Smithwas an English poet and novelist...
NationalityBritish
ProfessionPoet
Date of Birth20 September 1902
wish cold muse
My Muse sits forlorn She wishes she had not been born She sits in the cold No word she says is ever told.
heart men way
Not Waving but Drowning Nobody heard him, the dead man, But still he lay moaning: I was much further out than you thought And not waving but drowning. Poor chap, he always loved larking And now he's dead It must have been too cold for him his heart gave way, They said. Oh, no no no, it was too cold always (Still the dead one lay moaning) I was much too far out all my life And not waving but drowning.
love-is hands bleeding
Love is not love that wounded bleeds And bleeding sullies slow. Come death within my hands and I Unto my love will go.
swimming people may
I may be smelly and I may be old, Rough in my pebbles, reedy in my pools, But where my fish float by I bless their swimming, And I like the people to bathe in me especially women.
thinking auden
I don't think Auden liked my poetry very much, he's very Anglican.
memories people
I love people, but I love the thought and memory of them just as much.
marriage girl dream
I'm sorry to say my dear wife is a dreamer, and as she dreams she gets paler and leaner. Then be off to your Dream, with his fly-away hat, I stay with the girls who are happy and fat.
friendship silence friendly
I only asked my friends to be friendly and polite, I found them indifferent and censorious; The one I left to silence, the other to reproach: God send me over all such friends victorious.
christian lonely church
Christianity in the suburb is cheerful. The church is a centre of social activity and those who go to church need never be lonely.
dog boys errands
O happy dogs of England, Bark well at errand boys, If you lived anywhere else, You would not be allowed to make such an infernal noise.
lying believe white
If a lady comes up to you and tells you that your dear mama is lying in a faint on the pavement round the corner, don't you believe her, don't have anything to do with her, do not go with her into the cab. It is the White Slave Traffic.
years goats reason
Fourteen-year-old, why must you giggle and dote, Fourteen-year-old, why are you such a goat? I'm fourteen years old, that is the reason, I giggle and dote in season.
flower tree trying
nothing is more wistful than the scent of lilac, nor more robust than its woody stalk, for we must remember that it is a tree as well as a flower, we must try not to forget this ...
men forgiving may
A man may forgive many wrongs, but he cannot easily forgive anyone who makes it plain that his conversation is tedious.