Stevie Smith

A Good Time Was Had by All (1937)

• This Englishwoman is so refined
  She has no bosom and no behind.
  • "This Englishwoman"

Not Waving but Drowning (1957)

• 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.
  • "Not Waving But Drowning"

Selected Poems (1962)

• 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.
  • "Thoughts about the Person from Porlock (continued)"

• Was he married, did he try
  To support as he grew less fond of them
  Wife and family?
  • "Was He Married?"

• He did not love in the human way.
  • "Was He Married?"

• To choose a god of love, as he did and does,
  Is a little move then?
  
  Yes, it is.
  
  A larger one will be when men
  Love love and hate hate but do not deify them?
  
  It will be a larger one.
  • "Was He Married?"

• The religion of Christianity
  Is mixed of sweetness and cruelty
  Reject this Sweetness, for she wears
  A smoky dress out of hell fires.
  • "Thoughts about the Christian Doctrine of Eternal Hell"

• I made Man with too many faults. Yet I love him.
  And if he wishes, I have a home above for him.
  • "God Speaks"

• All the same, there is a difficulty. I should like him to be happy in heaven here,
  But he cannot come by wishing. Only by being already at home here.
  • "God Speaks"

• Who is this that comes in grandeur, coming from the blazing East?
  This is he we had not thought of, this is he the airy Christ.
  • "The Airy Christ"

• No man has seen her, this pitiful ghost,
  And no woman either, but heard her at most,
  Sighing and tapping and sighing again,
  You have weaned me too soon, you must nurse me again.
  • "The Wanderer"

• The boat that took my love away
  He sent again to me
  To tell me that he would not sleep
  Alone beneath the sea.
  • "The Boat"

• The flower and fruit of love are mine
  The ant, the fieldmouse and the mole
  • "The Boat"

• Why does my Muse only speak when she is unhappy?
  She does not, I only listen when I am unhappy.
  • "My Muse"

The Best Beast (1966)

• So I fancy my Muse says, when I wish to die,
  Oh no, Oh no, we are not yet friends enough,
  And Virtue also says:
  We are not yet friends enough.
  • "Exeat"