by Stevie Smith
ALL THE POEMS OF STEVIE SMITH
by the same author
* available from New Directions
poetry
A GOOD TIME WAS HAD BY ALL
TENDER ONLY TO ONE
MOTHER, WHAT IS MAN?
HAROLD’S LEAP
NOT WAVING BUT DROWNING
SELECTED POEMS
THE FROG PRINCE AND OTHER POEMS
TWO IN ONE
SCORPION AND OTHER POEMS
BEST POEMS*
fiction
NOVEL ON YELLOW PAPER*
OVER THE FRONTIER
THE HOLIDAY
drawings
SOME ARE MORE HUMAN THAN OTHERS*
editions
CATS IN COLOUR
THE BATSFORD BOOK OF CHILDREN’S VERSE
collections
ME AGAIN: UNCOLLECTED WRITINGS OF STEVIE SMITH
A VERY PLEASANT EVENING (SELECTED SHORTER PROSE)*
for Rufus and Andrew
Contents
By the Same Author
Title Page
Dedication
Acknowledgements
Introduction
A Note on the Text
Chronology
A GOOD TIME WAS HAD BY ALL (1937)
The Hound of Ulster
On the Death of a German Philosopher
Papa Love Baby
Bandol (Var)
Egocentric
Alfred the Great
Heber
Mrs Simpkins
How far can you Press a Poet?
Forgive me, forgive me
Progression
To the Tune of the Coventry Carol
The Suburban Classes
Spanish School
Night-Time in the Cemetery
The Songster
Up and Down
From the Greek
Alone in the Woods
Intimation of Immortality
Infant
God and the Devil
Es war einmal
Dream
Numbers
From the County Lunatic Asylum
Barlow
Lament of a Slug-a-bed’s Wife
The Bereaved Swan
Correspondence between Mr Harrison in Newcastle and Mr Sholto Peach Harrison in Hull
Nature and Free Animals
The Parklands
Eng.
Death Bereaves our Common Mother Nature Grieves for my Dead Brother
Aubade
Bag-Snatching in Dublin
The River Deben
Death Came to Me
No Respect
The Reason
I Like to Play with Him
Analysand
All Things Pass
Sunt Leones
I do not Speak
Lord Mope
Feminine Charm
To the Dog Belvoir
Never Again
Little Boy Lost
Does No Love Last?
Death of the Dog Belvoir
Angel of Grace
Freddy
Appetite
From My Notes for a Series of Lectures on Murder
Is it Wise?
This Englishwoman
Lord Barrenstock
Maximilian Esterhazy
What is the Time? or St Hugh of Lincoln
Major Macroo
Private Means is Dead
Bereavement
Death of Mr Mounsel
Who Killed Lawless Lean?
Road Up
Mrs Osmosis
The Fugitive’s Ride
Suburb
Beware the Man
Breughel
The Blood Flows Back
Now Pine-Needles
Portrait (1)
Louise
TENDER ONLY TO ONE (1938)
Tender Only to One
O Happy Dogs of England
Darling Daughters
The Bishops of the Church of England
The Toll of the Roads
Eulenspiegelei
The Abominable Lake
One of Many
Death’s Ostracism
The Boat
Parrot
The Doctor
I Hate this Girl
Infelice
Come, Death (1)
The Cock and the Hen
Silence and Tears
A Father for a Fool
Siesta
Brickenden, Hertfordshire
The Cousin
The Murderer
Mother, among the Dustbins
Le Désert de l’Amour
Portrait (2)
To a Dead Vole
Arabella
The Deathly Child
Reversionary
Dear Karl
In Canaan’s Happy Land
Proud Death with Swelling Port
My Soul
In My Dreams
Noble and Ethereal
Dear Female Heart
How Slowly Time Lengthens
The Man Saul
The River Humber
La Gretchen de Nos Jours (1)
Nourish Me on an Egg
Dear Muse
Souvenir de Monsieur Poop
Vater Unser
Gnädiges Fräulein
The Friend
The Lads of the Village
Upon a Grave
Bye Baby Bother
The Photograph
‘… and the clouds return after the rain’
Out of Time
‘I’ll have your heart’
Flow, Flow, Flow
The Children of the Cross
Fallen, Fallen
Rothebât
Look, Look
Tableau de l’Inconstance des Mauvais Anges
Will Ever?
Ceux qui luttent …
Suicide’s Epitaph
Come
Little Boy Sick
The Violent Hand
Fuite d’Enfance
MOTHER, WHAT IS MAN? (1942)
Human Affection
A King in Funeral Procession
La Gretchen de Nos Jours (2)
Murder
Girls!
Where are you going?
Autumn
Poet!
Bog-Face
The Zoo
Advice to Young Children
The Face
If I lie down
The Sad Mother
Ah, will the Saviour …?
Conviction (I)
Conviction (II)
Conviction (III)
Conviction (IV)
The Virtuoso
Villains
Le Majeur Ydow
The Little Daughters of America
She said …
Quand on n’a pas ce que l’on aime, il faut aimer ce que l’on a –
The Sad Heart
The Conventionalist
Study to Deserve Death
Dirge
La Speakerine de Putney
Distractions and the Human Crowd
Be off!
Love Me!
The Wild Dog
The Heavenly City
Lady ‘Rogue’ Singleton
Mother
My Heart was Full
Croft
Rencontres Funestes
The Film Star
The Bottle of Aspirins
The Governess
The Actress
The Devil-my-Wife
The Repentance of Lady T
The Smile
Forgot!
A Man I Am
The Broken Heart
The White Thought
In the Night
The Magic Morning
Après la Politique, la Ha
ine des Bourbons
The Poets are Silent
The Pleasures of Friendship
Happiness
Lot’s Wife
The Fool
Old Ghosts
Death in the Rose Garden
No More People
Hast Du dich verirrt?
Satin-Clad
Unpopular, lonely and loving
‘Ceci est digne de gens sans Dieu’
When the Sparrow Flies
Voices against England in the Night
‘N’est-ce pas assez de ne me point haïr?’
The Failed Spirit
The Sliding Mountain
The Recluse
‘I could let Tom go – but what about the children?’
Christmas
HAROLD’S LEAP (1950)
The Roman Road
The Castle
To Dean Inge Lecturing on Origen
Behind the Knight
The Warden
Harold’s Leap
A Mother’s Hearse
Touch and Go
Man is a Spirit
Thought is Superior
The River God of the River Mimram in Hertfordshire
Cool as a Cucumber
The Orphan Reformed
A Shooting Incident
‘Oh stubborn race of Cadmus’ seed …’
The Ambassador
Persephone
Do Take Muriel Out
The Weak Monk
Le Singe Qui Swing
Pad, pad
The Broken Friendship
‘Duty was his Lodestar’
The Afterthought
The Wanderer
No Categories!
The Deserter
I rode with my darling…
God and Man
Mr Over
My Cats
Drugs Made Pauline Vague
Our Bog is Dood
Wretched Woman
Lightly Bound
Le Revenant
Friskers or Gods and Men
Cool and Plain
To School!
To an American Publisher
The Rehearsal
Death-bed of a Financier
The Hat
Thank You
The Ride
I Am
The Crown of Bays
Homage to John Cowper Powys
Little Child of Brightest Face
Our Office Cat
A Jew is Angry with his Friend who does not Believe in Circumcision
From the Coptic
A Humane Materialist at the Burning of a Heretic
In Protocreation
Do Not!
The Death Sentence
The Commuted Sentence
The Celtic Fringe
The Leader
Oh, If Only …
Who Shot Eugenie?
Full Well I Know
Voices about the Princess Anemone
Deeply Morbid
The Ghost of Ware
NOT WAVING BUT DROWNING (1957)
Not Waving but Drowning
The English Visitor
‘What is she writing? Perhaps it will be good’
The Fairy Bell
The New Age
The Blue from Heaven
The Lady of the Well-Spring
The Queen and the Young Princess
A Dream of Comparison
My Hat
The Engine Drain
Saint Anthony and the Rose of Life
Anger’s Freeing Power
Fafnir and the Knights
Songe d’Athalie
The Hostage
Away, Melancholy
Dido’s Farewell to Aeneas
Childe Rolandine
The Jungle Husband
‘Come on, Come back’
Why are the Clergy …?
I Remember
But Murderous
This is Disgraceful and Abominable
God the Eater
God the Drinker
Will Man Ever Face Fact and not Feel Flat?
Every Lovely Limb’s a Desolation
A Dream of Nourishment
The Airy Christ
It Filled my Heart with Love
I. An Agnostic
II. A Religious Man
Dear Little Sirmio
‘Great Unaffected Vampires and the Moon’
The Celts
The Passing Cloud
Loin de l’Être
Nipping Pussy’s Feet in Fun
Cat Asks Mouse Out
My Cat Major
Parents
To a Lady in a Train
Adelaide Abner
The English
King Hamlet’s Ghost
At School
Can it Be?
The Old Sweet Dove of Wiveton
The Past
The Singing Cat
Longing for Death because of Feebleness
My Heart Goes Out
Look!
Who is this Who Howls and Mutters?
Oh What is the Thing He Done?
Magna est Veritas
The Light of Life
In the Park
Evangelie, or The Figure of Literary Corruption, seeking Glory not Truth
Jumbo
The Choosers
The Occasional Yarrow
The Sorrowful Girl
The Starling
Die Lorelei
Farewell
SELECTED POEMS (1962)
Thoughts about the Person from Porlock
Thoughts about the Christian Doctrine of Eternal Hell
Recognition not Enough
Was He Married?
Was it not curious?
The Frozen Lake
Poor Soul, poor Girl!
From the French (1)
Admire Cranmer!
Votaries of Both Sexes Cry First to Venus
From the French (2)
I Was so Full …
From the Italian
God Speaks
Edmonton, thy cemetery …
My Muse
THE FROG PRINCE AND OTHER POEMS (1966)
The Frog Prince
Tenuous and Precarious
A House of Mercy
The Best Beast of the Fat-Stock Show at Earls Court
Exeat
Easy
Oh Christianity, Christianity
Why do you rage?
The True Tyrant or The Spirit of Duty Rebuked
Under Wrong Trees … or Freeing the Colonial Peoples
I had a dream …
Dear Child of God
The Wedding Photograph
Phèdre
Everything is Swimming
‘The Persian’
Emily writes such a good letter
November
Monsieur Pussy-Cat, blackmailer
Si peu séduisante
To Carry the Child
Mutchmore and Not-So
The Last Turn of the Screw
Company
Saffron
Avondale
Avondall
Valuable
I Wish
The Listener
Hymn to the Seal
Fish Fish
Venus When Young Choosing Death
Lord Say-and-Seal
The Days of Yore
Pearl
Yes, I know
Widowhood or The Home-Coming of Lady Ross
Voice from the Tomb (1)
Voice from the Tomb (2)
Voice from the Tomb (3)
Voice from the Tomb (4)
Voice from the Tomb (5)
The Dedicated Dancing Bull and the Water Maid
Night Thoughts
Piggy to Joey
Pretty
The Small Lady
Animula, vagula, blandula
Friends of the River Trent
Is it Happy?
Watchful
How Cruel is the Story of E
ve
The Story I Have Told
Fairy Story
Angel Face
The Grange
Mrs Arbuthnot
Magnificent Words
So can anger …
On Walking Slowly After an Accident
I am a girl who loves to shoot
I love …
Cœur Simple
Nodding
v.
A British Song
When the wind …
Northumberland House
The Crown of Gold
Why do I …
Some Are Born
SCORPION AND OTHER POEMS (1972)
Scorpion
Seymour and Chantelle or Un peu de vice
How do you see?
The Ass
A Soldier Dear to Us
The Forlorn Sea
Angel Boley
The Donkey
Cock-A-Doo
Francesca in Winter
So to fatness come
The Sallow Bird
When Walking
Her-zie
The Word
Nor We of Her to Him
Mrs Blow and Her Animals
Oh grateful colours, bright looks!
O Pug!
Archie and Tina
The Poet Hin
The House of Over-Dew
Oblivion
The Galloping Cat
Hippy-Mo
Hendecasyllables
Black March
Grave by a Holm-Oak
The Sea-widow
The Stroke
Come, Death (2)
APPENDICES
I UNCOLLECTED POEMS
‘Casmilus’
‘As falls the gravelled grouse’
Henry Wilberforce
From the Latin
Portrait of a Fool
Souvenir de Jacky Vandenbroeck
‘The grief of an unquiet mind is a thing accursed’
Marriage I Think
Lulu
Death of Cold
Via Media Via Dolorosa
Sigh No More
Salon d’Automne
Sterilization
The Word
Landrecie
This Baronet
Swift to Depart
The Horror of the Midnight
The Angel
Revenge
Lift Thy Sad Heart
Flounder
The Pupil
Portrait
Left, Right
Ichabod
On Coming Late to Parnassus
A Portrait
The Horrible Man
The Octopus
As Sways
Portrait
Two Friends
‘When I Awake’
‘O Silent Visitation’
I Forgive You
‘The Midwife’
‘The Royal Dane’
O Lord!
The English
Beautiful
Why d’You Believe?
The Vision
Heartless
Silence
The Old Poet
I walked in the graveyard …
La Robe Chemise
From the French
The Holiday
When One
Miss Snooks, Poetess
Saint Foam and the Holy Child
B.B.C. Feature Programme on Prostitution
Pretty Baby
Our Doggy
My Tortoise
Have Done, Gudrun
William the Dog
Sapphic
The Hound Puss
II UNPUBLISHED POEMS
Northumberland Park (c.1936)
Fussy (c.7017)
Goodnight (1938)
Porgy Georgie (1938)