“ 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… Stevie Smith
“ All poetry has to do is to make a strong communication. All the poet has to do is listen. The poet is not an important fellow. There will also be another poet. Stevie Smith
“ 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. Stevie Smith
“ My Muse sits forlornShe wishes she had not been bornShe sits in the coldNo word she says is ever told. Stevie Smith
“ There are moments of despair that come sometimes, when night sets in and a white fog presses against the windows. Then our house changes its shape, rears up and becomes a place of despair. Then fear a… Stevie Smith
“ Wild creatures' eyes, the colonel said,Are innocent and fathomlessAnd when I look at them I seeThat they are not aware of meAnd oh I find and oh I blessA comfort in this emptinessThey only see me when… Stevie Smith
“ Raise from your bed of languorRaise from your bed of dismayYour friends will not come tomorrowAs they did not come todayYou must rely on yourself, they said,You must rely on yourself,Oh but I find thi… Stevie Smith
“ Marriage I thinkFor womenIs the best of opiates.It kills the thoughtsThat think about the thoughts,It is the best of opiates.So said Maria.But too long in solitude she'd dwelt,And too long her thought… Stevie Smith
“ Children who paddle where the ocean bed shelves steeplyMust take great care they do not, Paddle too deeply.'Thus spake the awful aging coupleWhose heart the years had turned to rubble.But the little c… Stevie Smith
“ 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 aboveAs I fear the friends below. Stevie Smith
“ Prate not to me of suicide, Faint heart in battle, not for pride I say Endure, but that such end denied Makes welcomer yet the death that's to be died. Stevie Smith
“ Away with them, away; we should not believe fairy stories if we wish to be good. Think of them as persons from the fairy wood. Stevie Smith
“ Unpopular, lonely and loving, Elinor need not trouble, For if she were not so loving, She would not be so miserable. Stevie Smith
“ 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 d… Stevie Smith
“ 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. Stevie Smith
“ I'll have your heart, if not by gift my knife Shall carve it out. I'll have your heart, your life. Stevie Smith
“ But human beings must suffer, and must make suffering for themselves, and beat themselves up into spiritual frenzies, and oh death and desolation, and oh night space and horror, and oh keep my dream f… Stevie Smith
“ Oh Lion in a peculiar guise,Sharp Roman road to Paradise,Come eat me up, I'll pay thy tollWith all my flesh, and keep my soul. Stevie Smith
