Book Read Free

All the Poems

Page 37

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

 

‹ Prev