All the Poems Read online

  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)