New Selected Poems of Stevie Smith

by Stevie Smith

Book Overview

Poems deal with parents, love, marriage, politics, suicide, nature, history, friendship, enemies, and animals. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0811210685
• ISBN13: 9780811210683
• Release Date: September 1988
• Publisher: New Directions Publishing Corporation
• Length: 160 Pages
• Weight: 0.45 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.2" x 7.9"

Customer Reviews

Unique genius

Stevie Smith is my absolute favorite poet. I love Yeats and T.S. Eliot, but not as much as I love Stevie! I read her poems over and over again and never get tired of them. Her voice is unique. Her style is so conversational that it's possible to miss how tightly constructed these gems are. She is grotesque, witty, fearless, and fascinating. Her subject matter ranges from God, death, war, children, cats, hats, and just about everything in between. Her work has great subtlety and depth, and yes, a lot of humor. I always smile when I read The Deserter. Deeply Morbid and The Wanderer are personal favorites. But in my opinion, Thoughts about the Person from Porlock is her best work. Who else but Stevie would even think about making a poem from an incident in another poet's life? Coleridge was supposedly dreaming his poem Xanadu when someone knocked on his door and woke him up. That person has ever since been regarded as a murderer of the Muse. But as Stevie so rightfully points out: "Coleridge received the Person from Porlock And ever after called him a curse, Then why did he hurry to let him in? He could have hid in the house. It was not right of Coleridge in fact it was wrong (But often we all do wrong) As the truth is I think he was already stuck With Kubla Khan. He was weeping and wailing: I am finished, finished, I shall never write another word of it, When along comes the Person from Porlock And takes the blame for it. It was not right, it was wrong, But often we all do wrong." This gives you a good idea of her style. Original,witty,funny, yet the poem goes on to talk about the death of creativity and the struggle of going on in a boring life. Yet it still is not depressing! She's much too clever for that. Stevie deserves a lot more recognition than she gets. I hope more people will read her!

A Courageous Eccentric

Morbid, yet never cynical, wryly funny, thought- and laughter- provoking poems by a curious, curmudgeonly bona fide English ecentric. Ideal for grown-ups who enjoy all "styles" of poetry and who are ready for "flights" of fancy, wherever they may land.

An American Classic

This is a good selection of Stevie Smith's poetry - and it is good that Smith should have such a volume in print in the States. Americans - with a tradition ranging from Whitman to the beat poets - should find Smith easier to accept than the English who have always maintained some reserve about this most original of writers. Obviously any Selected Poems is going to omit favourites - this volume really should have included 'The Magic Morning': read it in the Collected Poems - but 'The Galloping Cat' is here as well as 'Away Melancholy' and many other masterpieces. On the other hand, unless one really is a grade A Smith enthusiast, this Selected Poems is more comfortable than the larger Collected Poems. Except in subtle ways her poetic voice does not evolve (what other poet sprang into the world so fully formed? Remember: as Wilde said, 'Only mediocrities develop'): this can make her volumes monotonous and apparently limited. This selection is certainly enough on its own to convince the discerning reader that Smith was a talent of uncompromising genius (what we English like to call 'eccentric').

Poetry and Pictures Style Oh My

Stevie Smith combines poetry and pictures in a remarkably unique style. The reader is wonderfully challenged by the supposed inconsistencies of the two modes. However with a closer examination the complexity of the work diffuses into simple genius. Smith's collection of poetry offers a wide range of topics including such issues as childhood, politics, animals, marriage and so forth. I guarantee that once a reader gets into the rhythm of her poetry, they will become avid Stevie Smith readers. If you love James Thurber than you will equally love Stevie Smith.