The most delightful of English poets — mordantly amusing and fresh as a sassy cat

Extraordinarily funny, with the fresh eye of a visitor from another world, Stevie Smith is a poet to savor. Wielding a throwaway wit and the strangest irony,Stevie Smith was deeply read in the classics and yet sprinkled her poetry with delightful doodles. Her poems are often very dark; her characters are perpetually saying “goodbye” to their friends or welcoming death. At the same time her work has an eerie levity. Countless are her witty ways. The title of her first collection says it perfectly: A Good Time Was Had by All.

I longed for companionship rather,

But my companions I always wished farther.

And now in the desolate night

I think only of people I should like to bite. 

Stevie Smith (1902-1971) was born in Hull, England, but when she was three she moved with her parents and sister to Avondale Road in Palmers Green. Here she stayed for over sixty years, after her parents’ death living with her beloved “Lion Aunt.” She was the author of three novels and a dozen collections of poetry. Although baptized Florence Margaret Smith, she was nicknamed Stevie after Steve Donoghue the jockey.

Categories

• Poetry

Product Details

ISBN: 9780811221948
ISBN-10: 0811221946
Publisher: New Directions
Publication Date: December 23rd, 2013
Pages: 160
Language: English

A rare bird, a Maltese falcon. A more individual talent than Stevie Smith’s you don’t get.
— The New Yorker

Unique and cheerfully gruesome: a charming and original poet.
— Robert Lowell