by Stevie Smith
Out driving one day in the Merc 719
Outside the house 287
Over-dew 637
Parents who can barely afford it 408
Passing at my pleasure’s pace 243
People who are always praising the past 419
Piggy to Joey 541
Poet, thou art dead and damned 190
Poor human race that must 620
Poor noble Ghost that comes from place of pain 412
Porgy Georgie 702
Private Means is dead 77
Profit and Batten 201
Proud Death with swelling port comes ruffling by 136
Pull my arm back, Seymour 594
Put out that Light 428
Rapunzel Rapunzel let down your hair 291
Rather a fishy thing to do – 671
Revenge, Timotheus cries, and in that shout 670
Riding slowly along the banks of a canal 315
Rise from your bed of languor 513
Rothebât, Rothebât, the days that are gone 167
Ruory loved the aged Edith 726
Satin-clad, with many a pearl 245
Shall I tell you the signs of a New Age coming? 353
She got up and went away 726
She is not Indian, she’s ill 409
She said as she tumbled the baby in 203
She was not always so unkind I swear 93
She went to bed 120
Sholto Peach Harrison you are no son of mine 36
Shut me not alive away 329
Sigh no more ladies nor gentleman at all 665
Sin recognised – but that – may keep us humble 450
Since what you want, not what you ought 254
Sir 695
Sisley 43
Sitting alone of a summer’s evening 121
Some are born to peace and joy 588
Stand off, Mother, let me go! 250
Standing alone on a fence in a spasm 123
Study to deserve Death, they only may 207
Stupid and self-satisfied 672
Such evidence I have of indifference 536
Sweet baby, pretty baby, I bless thee 693
Swift 669
Telly me do 718
Tender only to one 99
Tenuous and Precarious 474
The ages blaspheme 90
The angel that rebellion raised 166
The angels wept to see poor Tolly dead 103
The animal that most loved Hans 720
The beast 732
The Best Beast of the Show 479
The big family 507
The blood flows back behind my eyes 91
The boat that took my love away 110
The boating party 232
The City Dog goes to the drinking trough 214
The Cock of the North 116
The cross begot me on the stone 197
The deathly child is very gay 131
The English are our friends of course 678
The foolish poet wonders 634
The funeral paths are hung with snow 19
The gas fire 499
The grass is green 629
The greatest love? 718
The grief of an unquiet mind is a thing accursed 663
The intellectual Englishman shrank away from the bedside 333
The lads of the village, we read in the lay 156
The Lion dishonoured bids death come 132
The lion sits within his cage 192
The lions who ate the Christians on the sand of the arena 54
The little birdies 728
The love of a mother for her child 268
The man Saul 143
The midwife guards the mother’s health 677
The milky love of this bland child 222
The monk sat in his den 286
The mune ha gien her loicht an’ gan 696
The nearly right 15
The nervous face of my dear wife 224
The nettle and the bog-wort grew 716
The old sick green parrot 111
The orphan is looking for parents 276
The painters of Spain 17
The pale face stretches across the centuries 531
The parrot 80
The people say that spiritism is a joke and a swizz 32
The pleasures of friendship are exquisite 237
The portrait of my mother 200
The rocks and trees in silence stood 392
The schoolgirls dance on the cold grass 705
The shadow was so black 199
The stricken Belvoir raised a paw and said 58
The tears of the widow of the military man 117
The terrors of the scenery 252
The time is passing now 687
The wood was rather old and dark 60
The world is come upon me, I used to keep it a long way off 295
Then cried the American poet where she lay supine 530
There is a face I know too well 195
There is a fearful solitude 227
There is a god in whom I do not believe 390
There is an old man 730
There is far too much of the suburban classes 16
There was a careful Wykehamist 715
There was a dog called Clanworthy 626
There was a wicked woman called Malady Festing 608
There was an old poet lay dying 685
There were thoughts that came to Phil 539
There’s a great many things I’d rather not be than dead 722
There’s no new spirit abroad 236
There’s so much to be said on either side 664
These before the worlds in congress 682
These hands so well articulated 247
These magnificent words that I read today 568
They do not come separately 570
They gave him a crown of bays and dressed him up 317
They killed a poet by neglect 707
They photographed me young upon a tiger skin 159
They played in the beautiful garden 266
This Baronet is very funny 668
This Englishwoman is so refined 70
This god then, O lord whoever he is do receive into the city 678
This heap of ashes was a learned girl 209
This is my bed 703
This is my earliest love, sweet Death 704
This night shall thy soul be required of thee 593
This old man is sly and wise 319
Thought is superior to dress and circumstance 272
Three angels came to the red red clay 323
Through the Parklands, through the Parklands 38
Tizdal my beautiful cat 576
To a mere 455
To be so cold and yet not old 104
To carry the child into adult life 505
To many men strange fates are given 21
To those who are isolate 251
’Twas the voice of the sweet dove 417
Twas the voice of the Wanderer, I heard her exclaim 292
Two ladies walked on the soft green grass 360
Under wrong trees 488
Underneath the broad hat is the face of the Ambassador 282
Underneath the ice 514
Underneath the speckled leaves 670
Underneath the tangled tree 338
Unpopular, lonely and loving 246
Up and down the streets they go 21
Upon a grave 157
Upon his loneliness and pain 673
Vater Unser 152
Venez vite 173
Very louche is this dog, very louche 662
Walking one day in the park in winter 429
Walking swiftly with the dreadful duchess 114
Wan 35
Was he married, did he try 451
Was it not curious of Aúgustin 454
We had ridden three days Eugenie and I 334
We have given the Welsh a most awfully 717
We have no father and no mother 314
We n
eeds must love the highest when we see it 154
We shall never be one mummy only 463
Weep not my pretty boy, grieve not my girl 730
What care I if good God be 7
What has happened to the young men of Eng.? 40
What is she writing? Perhaps it will be good 350
What is the time, my limber lad 74
What pleased him more 529
What shall I say to the gentlemen, mother 668
What shall we say of this curious young man? 56
What’s wrong with you-zie? 623
When all was young the Race began 730
When ancient girl is garbed in spite 226
When I awake 676
When one torments another without cease 688
When shall that fuel fed fire grown fatter 325
When the sparrow flies to the delicate branch 248
When the wind is in the East 580
When Watchful came to me he said 551
Where is the sky hurrying to 575
White and yellow were the flowers 130
Who is this that comes in grandeur, coming from the burning East? 396
Who is this that howls and mutters? 425
Who shall we send to fetch him away 434
Why are the clergy of the Church of England 385
Why d’you believe that God is cruel 679
Why do I think of Death as a friend? 587
Why do people abuse so much our busy age? 684
Why do you rage so much against Christ, against Him 486
Why dost thou dally, Death, and tarry on the way? 115
Why is the child so pale 94
Why is the word pretty so underrated? 542
Wicked and corrupt 432
Will ever the stormy seas and the surges deep 170
William the Dog 695
With my looks I am bound to look simple or fast I would rather look simple 427
Would he might come 147
Wretched woman that thou art 304
You are not looking at all well, my dear 112
You are only one of many 107
You beastly child, I wish you had miscarried 305
You can’t look out of the window 713
You don’t look at all well, quite loin de l’être in fact 405
You hang at dawn, they said 374
You lie there, Anna 655
You never heard of me, I dare 536
You say I must write another book? But I’ve just written this one 310
Copyright © 1937, 1938, 1942, 1950, 1957, 1962, 1966, 1971, 1972 by Stevie Smith
Copyright © 2016 by the Estate of James MacGibbon
Copyright © 2015 by Will May
All rights reserved. Except for brief passages quoted in a newspaper, magazine, radio, television, or website review, no part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the Publisher.
Published by arrangement with Faber & Faber
First published by New Directions in 2016
eISBN 978-0-8112-2381-2
New Directions Books are published for James Laughlin
by New Directions Publishing Corporation
80 Eighth Avenue. New York 10011