New Selected Poems

by Stevie Smith

Poems deal with parents, love, marriage, politics, suicide, nature, history, friendship, enemies, and animals

Genres: Poetry, British Literature, Nonfiction

168 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 1988

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name.

Florence Margaret Smith, known as Stevie Smith (20 September 1902 – 7 March 1971), was an English poet and novelist.

Reviews

[Tamara J. Collins]

The New Selected Poems of Stevie Smith are a must have for any poetry lover!

At first unnoticed as a poet, Stevie worked in a London publisher’s office until 1953. Steadily gaining respect, Smith won the Queen’s Gold Medal for Poetry in 1969. Her poetry speaks with a fiercely comic voice, underneath which lie serious questions about contemporary life.

Her light, comic verse is characterized by her unique use of sound and meaning. Her poems-many of which combine elements from nursery rhymes, songs, and hymns are characterized by a simplicity of diction and a youthful lively wit.

Stevie Smith’s poetry is uniquely dark and comical.

[Greg · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have heard that Sylvia Plath was a devotee of Stevie Smith, and in her themes of death, angst, and anti-Christianity, I can certainly see the connection. Smith’s collection is varied and bizarre. Clearly a talented poet, she is also clearly a tortured soul. A beautiful example of her work is the poem, Tender Only to One:
Tender only to one
Tender and true
The petals swing
To my fingering
Is it you, or you, or you?

Tender only to one
I do not know his name
And the friends who fall
To the petals’ call
May think my love to blame.

Tender only to one
This petal holds a clue
The face it shows
But too well knows
Who I am tender to.

Tender only to one,
Last petal’s latest breath
Cries out aloud
From the icy shroud
His name, his name is Death.

Another standout is The New Age:
Shall I tell you the signs of a New Age coming?
It is a sound of drubbing and sobbing
Of people crying, We are old, we are old
And the sun is going down and becoming cold
Oh sinful and sad and the last of our kind
If We turn to God now do you think He will mind?
Then they fall on their knees and begin to whine
That the state of Art itself presages decline
As if Art has anything or ever had
T0 do with civilization whether good or bad.
Art is wild as a cat and quite separate from civilization
But that is another matter that is not now under consideration. Oh these people are fools with their sighing and sinning
Why should Man be at an end? he is hardly beginning.
This New Age will slip in under cover of their cries
And be upon them before they have opened their eyes.
Well, say geological time is a one-foot rule
Then Man’s only been here about half an inch to play the fool
Or be wise if he likes, as he often has been
Oh heavens how these crying people spoil the beautiful geological scene.

Some of her poems are quite sharp and short, such as Some Are Born:
Some are born to peace and joy
And some are born to sorrow
But only for a day as we
Shall not be here tomorrow.

Other poems border clearly on Edward Lear-like nonsense (complete with drawings), while many poems nearly shout with anger at what Smith perceives are the lies of Christianity. These poems were quite difficult for me to read precisely because I do not feel the same way, and her poems are disconnected from me as the reader.

At her best, this collection shows Smith to be a true innovator in language and feeling. At her worst, she is nonsensical and/or vitriolic. Either way, she deserves to be read more than she is in the United States.

[Jenny (Reading Envy) · Rating 3 out of 5]

April is poetry month, and although I'm in the middle of a stack of books, I needed a break! Stevie Smith is such a fun poet to read, between the bizarre range of her poem subjects to the accompanying drawings.

Some are silly, some are quite serious. I loved this one:

Forgive me, forgive me

Forgive me forgive me my heart is my own
And not to be given for any man's frown
Yet would I not keep it for ever alone.

Forgive me forgive me I thought that I loved
My fancy betrayed me my heart was unmoved
My fancy too often has carelessly roved.

Forgive me forgive me for here where I stand
There is no friend beside me no lover at hand
No footstep but mine in my desert of sand.

[Ryan Cunningham · Rating 4 out of 5]

An underrated poet, especially in the US. I haven't read this entire selection, but what I've read is great modern poetry. At the same time, it's kind of a counterpoint to modern poetry. You might even call it "outsider."

[Michael P. · Rating 4 out of 5]

OK, Stevie Smith is not the best poet I have ever read and there is a small about of crap in this collection, but many, many of her poems resonate with me. I especially like her technique of seeming to praise something then undermining the praiseworthiness of that thing as the poem rolls on. She writes some very cutting and wise things about religion and there are some rather moving poems about longing. This is a good collection.

[Reba Reads · Rating 3 out of 5]

A friend lent me this collection, which I've been slowly digesting about five poems at a time for months. Truthfully, many of these poems didn't speak to me, but for every ten poems that didn't touch me at all, at least three followed that punched me square in the face. All I can say is, give this collection a chance. Stevie Smith is talented.

[Kelly Sauskojus · Rating 4 out of 5]

In my opinion, brilliant and humble and funny, but still not as good as her novel. But I really like novels.

[Sasha Jones · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant, dark and funny

[Patricia N. McLaughlin · Rating 3 out of 5]

“A unique and cheerfully gruesome voice,” said Robert Lowell of poet Stevie Smith—and what a wit! Smith’s deceptively simple style and sing-song rhymes belie her incisive insight into societal problems and the human condition. No wonder Sylvia Plath became a fan of her poetry and sent Smith a letter in 1962, describing herself as "a desperate Smith-addict,” ironically, just a few months before she wrote her own fatal version of “Exeat.” That said, most of these poems read like ditties dashed off on a lark without the meticulous craft of her contemporaries—a cultivated style, to be sure, but pale in comparison to the likes of Dorothy Parker.

“Oh it is not happy, it is never happy,
To carry the child into adulthood,
Let children lie down before full growth
And die in their infanthood
And be guilty of no man’s blood.

But oh the poor child, the poor child, what can he do,
Trapped in a grown-up carapace,
But peer outside of his prison room
With the eye of an anarchist?” —“To Carry the Child”

Favorite Poems:
“Egocentric”
“A Dream of Comparison”
“Was He Married?”
“Exeat”
“I had a dream . . .”
“To Carry the Child”
“Voice from the Tomb (I)”
“How do you see?”

[Ron · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the first book of Stevie Smith poems that I've read. I found myself intrigued by the drawing on the cover and the price was right ($1). I'd have to describe her style as a little darker than I like. The poems that stuck with me (some because I enjoyed, some because they were strange):

Egocentric
The Reason
All Things Pass
I do not Speak
Souvenir de Monsieur Poop
Autumn
If I lie down
Conviction (i)
The Conventionalist
Dirge
Happiness
Do Take Muriel Out
To an American Publisher
Not Waving but Drowning
Childe Rolandine
Why are the Clergy ... ?
The Past
God Speaks
Oh Christianity, Christianity
Voice from the Tomb (4)
Friends of the River Trent
How do you see?
Black March
Come, Death (2)

[rivka · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bought this book for a college class and loved it. (The book AND the class. ;) ) Smith has such a marvelous way with language. Everyone should read her poetry; at absolute minimum her Pretty. (I guess someone agrees with me, as I've spotted it in more than one high school textbook.)

[Shawn Ruth · Rating 3 out of 5]

Weird

[Dayna Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

This fascinating and funny poet wrote poems about everything - politics, religion, nature, herself, animals - with skill and humor. A must read for poetry lovers.

[K M · Rating 4 out of 5]

My favorite is "To Carry the Child".

[Hannah · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun but odd; Edith Sitwell meets Sylvia Plath.

[Steve · Rating 5 out of 5]

Possibly my favorite poet. I'm grateful for the college professor that first introduced me to Stevie Smith.

[Andrew · Rating 3 out of 5]

Playful poems, nothing overly brilliant but sometimes that's just fine.