by Stevie Smith
Watchful 551
Weak Monk 286
Wedding Photograph 494
‘What is she writing? Perhaps it will be good’ 350
What is the Time? or St Hugh of Lincoln 74
‘When I Awake’ 676
When One 688
When the Sparrow Flies 248
When Walking 622
When the wind … 580
Where are you going? 188
White Thought 230
Who is this Who Howls and Mutters? 425
Who Killed Lawless Lean? 80
Who Shot Eugenie? 334
Why are the Clergy …? 385
Why d’You Believe? 679
Why do I … 587
Why do you rage? 486
Widowhood or The Home-Coming of Lady Ross 532
Wife’s Lament at Hereford 732
Wild Dog 214
Will Ever? 170
Will Man Ever Face Fact and not Feel Flat? 392
William the Dog 695
Word 624
Word 667
Wretched Woman 304
Yes, I know 531
Zoo 192
Index by First Line
A child is born, they cry, a child 255
A couple of women is one too many 240
A dark rose grew in the desert 367
A dismal bell hung in the belfry 351
A dwindling body of ageing fish 546
A mother slew her unborn babe 388
A sallow bird sat on a tree 621
A talented old gentleman painting a hedge 622
A thousand and fifty-one waves 31
A woolly dog 465
Across the bridge across the dyke 84
Adela is such a silly woman 578
Adelaide Abner is cruel 410
Admirals Curse-You and No-More 202
Admire the old man, admire him, admire him 460
All the waters of the river Deben 44
All these illegitimate babies … 518
All things pass 53
Aloft 218
Alone in the woods I felt 23
An antique story comes to me 441
Angel face so close above me 563
Angel most cynical 175
Archie and Tina 632
As falls the gravelled grouse 661
As sways the gentle sycamore 674
At school I always walk with Elwyn 413
Away, melancholy 377
Bandol (Var) 6
Be mine, sweet child, let not the blush departing 662
Behind the Knight sits hooded Care 265
Belvoir thy coat was not more golden than thy heart 63
Beware the man whose mouth is small 89
Brightest and best are the sons of the morning 169
Bye Baby Bother 158
Can it be, can it be 416
Carve delinquency away 666
Casmilus, whose great name I steal 661
C’est la, la, la 712
C’est un grand Monsieur Pussy-Cat 503
Ceux qui luttent ce sont ceux qui vivent 171
Children who paddle where the ocean bed shelves steeply 194
Christ died for God and me 198
Cold as no love, and wild with all negation 204
Cold as No Plea 328
Coleridge received the Person from Porlock 445
Come, wed me, Lady Singleton 216
Cool and plain 308
Cool as a cucumber calm as a mill pond sound as a bell 275
Count Flanders 235
Creature of God, thy coat 523
Crying for pleasure 461
Dark was the day for Childe Rolandine the artist 380
Darling daughters, listen to your mother 101
Darling little baby child 196
Darling little Tom and Harry 674
Deal not with me God as I have dealt with Man 312
Dear child of God 492
Dear Daughter of the Southern Cross 709
Dear Female Heart, I am sorry for you 141
Dear Karl, I send you Walt Whitman in a sixpenny book 133
Dear little Bog-Face 191
Dear little Sirmio 400
Dear Muse, the happy hours we have spent together 149
Dearest Evelyn, I often think of you 382
Death came to me and said 46
Deep in the still mysterious waters of the lake a world lies drowned 106
Deeply morbid deeply morbid was the girl who typed the letters 340
Disarmed off-guard tendre et soumise 686
Do not despair of man, and do not scold him 327
Do take Muriel out 285
Donnez à manger aux affamées 220
Down with creative talent 731
Drugs made Pauline vague 301
Duty was my Lobster, my Lobster was she 290
Easy in their ugly skins 482
Edmonton, thy cemetery 467
‘Eh bien! Marche!’, fit le Majeur Ydow 201
England, you had better go 249
Everything is swimming in a wonderful wisdom 498
Fair waved the golden corn 135
Far from his home he came, the old person 724
Far from normal far from normal far from normal I am 316
Farewell dear friends 442
Farewell for ever, well for ever fare 186
Father Damien Doshing 703
First he sat, and then he lay 693
Flow, flow, flow 164
Forgive me forgive me my heart is my own 13
Fourteen-year-old, why must you giggle and dote 206
From a friend’s friend I taste friendship 208
Full well I know the flinty heart 337
Get up thou lazy lump thou log get up 34
Girls! although I am a woman 187
God and the Devil 26
God bless the lion, the British animal 706
God in Heaven, forgive my death, it lies 242
Goodbye Harry I must have you by me for a time 494
Hamster 713
Happiness is silent, or speaks equivocally for friends 238
Harold, are you asleep? 267
He blinks he sighs 182
He chases his tail 51
He flies so high 168
He is a most horrible man 673
He is quite captive to the Lady of the Well-Spring 357
He often gazes on the air 399
He preferred to be a hearthrug sage 717
He said no word of her to us 625
He says that religious thought and all our nerviness 399
He told his life story to Mrs Courtly 189
He told me he loved me 229
He stood in dream upon the brim 108
He wrote The I and the It 4
Henry Wilberforce as a child 661
Here lies a poet who would not write 534
Honour and magnify this man of men 8
Hop hop, thump thump 537
How cruel is the story of Eve 556
How do you see the Holy Spirit of God? 596
How far can you press a poet? 12
How fares it with you, Mrs Cooper my bride? 656
How hypocritical this dear old fellow is 691
How nice it is to slink the streets at night 87
How slowly time lengthens from a hated event 142
How sweet the birds of Avondale 516
I admire the Bishops of the Church of England 102
I always admire a beautiful woman 311
I always remember your beautiful flowers 288
I am a frog 471
I am a girl who loves to shoot 572
I am becalmed in a deep sea 423
I am dying Egypt dying 79
I am Miles, I did not die 509
I am not God’s little lamb 174
I am that Persephone 283
I am the self-appointed guardian of English literature 150
I came upon it in a dream 29
I can call up old ghosts, and they
will come 241
I cannot imagine anything nicer 458
I can’t say I enjoyed it, but the pay was good 223
I cry I cry 293
I died for lack of company 536
I do not ask for mercy for understanding for peace 55
I do not care for nature 664
I fear the ladies and gentlemen under the trees 219
I feel a mortal isolation 393
I feel ill. What can the matter be? 658
I fell in love with Major Spruce 14
I forgive you, Maria 677
I go to church because the Rector 714
I had a dream I was a bird 517
I had a dream I was Helen of Troy 489
I had a dream of nourishment 395
I had a dream three walls stood up wherein a raven bird 369
I had a sweet bird 650
I had a sweet tortoise called Pye 694
I hate this girl 113
I have a cat: I call him Pumpkin 697
I have a friend 653
I have a happy nature 217
I have lived and followed my fate without flinching, followed it gladly 379
I have no respect for you 48
I have plunged in a poem of the sea 687
I have two loves 176
I like to get off with people 199
I like to play with him 50
I like to see him drink the gash 391
I like to toss him up and down 300
I long for the desolate valleys 239
I longed for companionship rather 231
I look at the bottle, when mournful I feel 221
I look in the glass 225
I look in the mirror 343
I love little Heber 9
I love my beautiful hat more than anything 313
I love the English country scene 574
I love to hear the cock crow in 617
I love you, Muse 719
I made Man with too many flaws. Yet I love him 466
I married the Earl of Egremont 262
I may be smelly and I may be old 273
I never know what to say 673
I never learnt to attract, you see 205
I only asked my friends to be friendly and polite 675
I raised my gun 27
I remember the Roman Emperor, one of the cruellest of them 481
I rode with my darling in the dark wood at night 296
I saw the ghostly lady fleeting 559
I shall be glad to be silent, Mother, and hear you speak 230
I sigh for the heavenly country 215
I stand I fall 62
I stood knee-deep in the sea 526
I thank thee O Lord for my beautiful bed 716
I think of the Celts as rather a whining lady 402
I thought as I lay on my bed one night, I am only a passing cloud 403
I trod a foreign path, dears 535
I used to walk quickly 570
I walked abroad in Easter Park 198
I walked in the graveyard 685
I want to be your pinkie 127
I was a beautiful plant 657
I was always a thoughtful youngster 582
I was consumed by so much hate 228
I was so full of love and joy 464
I was talking one day 64
I went into the wood one day 562
I will forgive you everything 37
I will never leave you darling 439
I wonder why Proust should have thought 495
I’ll have your heart. If not by gift, my knife 163
I’m growing much fonder of Barlow 33
I’m sorry to say my dear wife is a dreamer 212
If I lie down upon my bed I must be here 196
Il était une petite fille de dix ans 504
In a shower of tears I sped my fears 160
In front of the mighty washing machine 544
In her loneliness Mabel 723
In his fur the animal rode, and in his fur he strove 398
In my dreams I am always saying goodbye and riding away 139
In protocreation 326
In the cold light of morning she was looking rather queer 153
In the dawn of a sumptuous November 502
In the flame of the flickering fire 138
In the graveyard, in the graveyard 348
In the quiet waters 371
In the wood of Wallow 602
Indolent youth 459
Is Fussy coming? 701
Is it Claudius or Clowdius? my little child Harry said 709
Is it happy for me, is it happy 548
Is it not interesting to see 448
Is it wise 69
Is she not a stupid girl? Just see 662
It is a formal and deserted garden 161
It is not difficult to kill 68
It is the bird of burial 281
It is the very bewitching hour of eight 652
It must be some disease I have 717
It seemed a curious place to rest one’s body and take one’s ease 82
It was a cynical babe 25
It was a dream and shouldn’t I bother about a dream? 373
It was a graveyard scene. The crescent moon 401
It was a house of female habitation 476
It was a human face in my oblivion 646
It was a little captive cat 420
It was a mile of greenest grass 435
It was a slender British bird 579
It was a sweet unnatural rose 727
It was my bridal night I remember 386
It was such a pretty little donkey 616
It was the mighty Engine Drain, the Engine Drain, the Engine Drain 364
It was the War 605
Je ne peux le verstehen 671
Jumbo, Jumbo, Jumbo darling, Jumbo come to Mother 433
Kathleen ni Houlihan 330
King Arthur rode in another world 354
Lamb dead, dead lamb 41
Leave off your singing, Lord Henry de Bohon 715
Left by the ebbing tide of battle 383
Left, right 672
Let all the little poets be gathered together in classes 309
Let me know 67
Lift thy sad heart 670
Listen, all of you, listen, all of you 264
Listening one day on the radio 522
Little bird of brightest laugh 711
Little boy 3
Little Child of brightest face 320
Little children in the sunlight 669
Little Master Home-from-School 119
Little soul so sleek and smiling 545
Look, man, look 524
Lord Barrenstock and Epicene 71
Lord Say-and-Seal, Lord Say-and-Seal 528
Love me, Love me, I cried to the rocks and the trees 213
Mabel was married last week 500
Major Hawkaby Cole Macroo 75
Major is a fine cat 407
Man does not live by bread alone 277
Man is a spirit. This the poor flesh knows 271
Man is coming out of the mountains 269
Man is my darling, my love and my pain 298
Man thinks he was not born to die 679
Many of the English 411
Maria Holt 78
Marriage I Think 663
Men fear the hollow man at the top of tree 332
Miriam and Horlick spend a great deal of time putting off going to bed 702
Miss Pauncefort sang at the top of her voice 20
Miss Snooks was really awfully nice 689
Mother love is a mighty benefaction 723
Mother procure for me a golden crown 584
Mother said if I wore this hat 362
Mother, among the dustbins and the manure 125
Mother, I love you so 181
Mother, mother, let me go 359
Mr Over is dead 299
Mr Petty-Pie 675
Mrs Arbuthnot was a poet 567
Mrs Mouse 406
Mrs Osmosis 83
Mrs Simpkins never had very much to do 10
Mrs Midnight 707
Muriel, Muriel, marry me Muriel 437
My child, my child, watch how he goes 244
My dove, my doe 42
My heart goes out to my Creator in love 422
My heart is fallen in despair 289
My heart leaps up with streams of joy 624
My heart was full of softening showers 218
My life is vile 49
My little dog is called 683
My mother was a romantic girl 5
My mother was Dutch 128
My Muse sits forlorn 468
My soul within the shades of night 253
My true love breathed her latest breath 124
My Uncle from the realms of Death 306
Never again will I weep 59
Never for ever, for ever never, oh 24
No wonder 145
Noble and ethereal he sped upon his way 140
Nobody heard him, the dead man 347
Nobody hears me, nobody sees me 532
Nobody knows what I feel about Freddy 65
None of the other birds seem to like it 723
Northumberland Park Northumberland Park 701
Nourish me on an Egg, Nanny 148
Now is come the horrible mome 678
Now it is time to go for a walk 721
Now pine-needles 92
Now Vole art dead 129
O happy dogs of England 100
O love sweet love 618
O Maximilian stern and wild 73
O never girl beneath the skies of Italy 57
O Pug, some people do not like you 630
O Queen of Heaven 184
O silent visitation 676
Of all the disgraceful and abominable things 389
Often in her bath, ah cold 664
Oh Christianity, Christianity 484
Oh cold and ferocious are the children of the cross 165
Oh ho uncircumciséd Sadducee I see 322
Oh I am a cat that likes to 647
Oh I am certain he will come again 708
Oh I wish that there were some wing, some wing 520
Oh Ichabod, the glory is departed 672
Oh Lion in a peculiar guise 261
Oh Lord have mercy on my soul 172
Oh Mr Pussy-Cat 406
Oh my darling Goosey-Gander 487
Oh there hasn’t been much change 564
Oh thou intellectual brow – 724
Oh what can be happening pray what are they at? 307
Oh what is the terrible thing he has done 426
Oh where are ye going ye human faces 188
Oh where is the word 667
Oh would that I were a reliable spirit careering around 421
Oh, Lamb of God I am 714
Old age is unbecoming, so they say 712
Ormerod was deeply troubled 210
On a black horse 689
One thousand and one naked ladies 665
Our Bog is dood, our Bog is dood 302
Our Office cat is a happy cat 321
Our Princess married 608