Collected PoemsNew Directions Publishing, 1983 - 591 páginas This New Directions Paperbook brings back into print the 1975 Oxford University Press edition of Stevie Smith's Collected Poems, her complete poetic works edited by her long-time friend James MacGibbon. "On gray days when most modern poetry seems one dull colorless voice speaking through a hundred rival styles, one turns to Stevie Smith and enjoys her unique and cheerfully gruesome voice. She is a charming and original poet," commented Robert Lowell about the book that introduced Stevie to American readers, her Selected Poems (New Directions, 1964). The Selected won her many enthusiasts, but it was not until the release of Hugh Whitemore's film Stevie in 1981 that her poetry found a wider audience and sent that little book repeatedly back to press. The title of Miss Smith's first published collection (London, 1937) was A Good Time Was Had By All, and indeed that is what her poetry, embroidered by her delightful, apposite doodles, provides. It brings us too into the company of wit, irony, and, as Brendan Gill remarked, "images of joy and terror." A Newsweek reviewer wrote, "Even in the lightest of her verse, the briefest epigram, there is a resonance, the reverberation of a triangle, if not a gong." |
Otras ediciones - Ver todas
Términos y frases comunes
Angel animal Avondale beautiful bird blood breast bright child Christianity Church of England cold creatures cried dark darling daughter dead dear Death dream eyes face Fafnir father fear feel fish forgive girl grass green hand happy head hear heart heaven heavenly Hippy-Mo Hopdance human innocent voice Kathleen ni Houlihan kiss lady lake laugh leave live look Lord Minnim Mother never night Oh my darling Over-Dew pain pale Palmers Green Person from Porlock Phèdre Poems poet poor pray pretty ride river Humber sighed silent singing Sir Bedevere Sirmio sits sleep smile song sorrowful soul speak spirit Stevie Stevie Smith stood sweet tears thing thou thought trees turned walk Walt Whitman waves Waving but Drowning weeping wild wind wish wood words young
Pasajes populares
Página 404 - As already they are fairly happy In a frog's doom? I have been a frog now For a hundred years And in all this time I have not shed many tears, I am happy, I like the life, Can swim for many a mile (When I have hopped to the river) And am for ever agile. And the quietness, Yes, I like to be quiet I am habituated To a quiet life...
Página 16 - I sat upright in my baby carriage And wished mama hadn't made such a foolish marriage. I tried to hide it but it showed in my eyes unfortunately And a fortnight later papa ran away to sea. He used to come home on leave It was always the same I could not grieve But I think I was somewhat to blame.
Página 157 - And upon the jungle grass I slink, Snuff the aroma of my mental stink, Taste the salt tang of tears upon the brink Of my uncomfortable muzzle. My tail my beautiful, my lovely tail, Is warped. My stripes are matted and my coat once sleek Hangs rough and undistinguished on my bones.
Página 423 - GOODBYE Harry I must have you by me for a time But once in the jungle you must go off to a higher clime The old lion on his slow toe Will eat you up, that is the way you will go. Oh how I shall like to be alone on the jungle path But you are all right now for the photograph So smile Harry smile and I will smile too Thinking what is going to happen to you, It is the death wish lights my beautiful eyes But people think you are lucky to go off with such a pretty prize. Ah feeble me that only wished...
Página 25 - The nearly right And yet not quite In love is wholly evil And every heart That loves in part Is mortgaged to the devil. I loved or thought I loved in sort Was this to love akin To take the best And leave the rest And let the devil in? O lovers true And others too Whose best is only better Take my advice Shun compromise Forget him and forget her.
Página 171 - Dear little Bog-Face, Why are you so cold? And why do you lie with your eyes shut? You are not very old. I am a Child of this World, And a Child of Grace, And Mother, I shall be glad when it is over, I am Bog-Face.
Página 238 - OI may be an old foul river but I have plenty of go. Once there was a lady who was too bold She bathed in me by the tall black cliff where the water runs cold, So I brought her down here To be my beautiful dear. Oh will she stay with me will she stay This beautiful lady, or will she go away? She lies in my beautiful deep river bed with many a weed To hold her, and many a waving reed. Oh who would guess what a beautiful white face lies there Waiting for me to smooth and wash away the fear She looks...
Página 233 - Harold was always afraid to climb high, But something urged him on, He felt he should try I would not say that he was wrong Although he succeeded in doing nothing but die Would you?
Página 565 - I have a friend At the end Of the world. His name is a breath Of fresh air. He is dressed in Grey chiffon. At least I think it is chiffon. It has a Peculiar look, like smoke.
Página 74 - Private Means is dead God rest his soul, officers and fellow-rankers said. Captive Good, attending Captain 111 Can tell us quite a lot about the Captain, if he will. Major Portion Is a disingenuous person And as for Major Operation well I guess We all know what his reputation is. The crux and Colonel Of the whole matter (As you may read in the Journal If it's not tattered) Lies in the Generals Collapse Debility Panic and Uproar Who are too old in any case to go to the War.