Product Description

Stevie Smith was one of the few modern poets to reach a wide general audience. Bizarre, witty, sad, sometimes caustic, her poems impart a zest for life, and reveal her unique eye for the marvels of the ordinary and her deep sensibility to the paradoxical nature of all human emotions.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #214399 in Books
• Published on: 2002-01-31
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 304 pages

Customer Reviews

Stevie Smith rocks!!
Childlike and sophisticated, simple and complex, sensitive and sardonic, bracing and clearly English in tone these poems connect instantly and memorably. The collection is well balanced and generous, edited by Mr. MacGibbon who was her literary executor. Her illustrations are scrawled as illustrated on the cover but convey their meaning well. A good many of the poems deal with a suicide wish, or the wish to be transported to an isolated timeless world. One can easily see the influences of other poets/writers. However she often surprises with her diversity. Many of the poems have a fairy tale feel to them, like the Grimm tales, and indeed some of the poems are about fairy tale characters(eg "the Frog Prince") but with her own unique perspective. Indeed, I don't think I have ever read anything quite like Stevie Smith's poems. All are good, perhaps apart from the few about politics/Hitler/India/Ireland. Her forte is the internal, the personal, the social not international commentry. I highly recommend this book.

Stevie Smith rocks!!
Childlike and sophisticated, simple and complex, sensitive and sardonic, bracing and clearly English in tone these poems connect instantly and memorably. The collection is well balanced and generous, edited by Mr. MacGibbon who was her literary executor. Her illustrations are scrawled as illustrated on the cover but convey their meaning well. A good many of the poems deal with a suicide wish, or the wish to be transported to an isolated timeless world. One can easily see the influences of other poets/writers. However she often surprises with her diversity. Many of the poems have a fairy tale feel to them, like the Grimm tales, and indeed some of the poems are about fairy tale characters(eg "the Frog Prince") but with her own unique perspective. Indeed, I don't think I have ever read anything quite like Stevie Smith's poems. All are good, perhaps apart from the few about politics/Hitler/India/Ireland. Her forte is the internal, the personal, the social not international commentry. I highly recommend this book.