Stevie Smith Poems

It was my bridal night I remember,
An old man of seventy-three
I lay with my young bride in my arms,
A girl with t.b.
...

Walking swiftly with a dreadful duchess,
He smiled too briefly, his face was pale as sand,
He jumped into a taxi when he saw me coming,
Leaving my alone with a private meaning,
...

Drugs made Pauline vague.
She sat one day at the breakfast table
Fingering in a baffled way
The fronds of the maidenhair plant.
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Mother, among the dustbins and the manure
I feel the measure of my humanity, an allure
As of the presence of God, I am sure
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Away, melancholy,
Away with it, let it go.

Are not the trees green,
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Tenuous and Precarious
Were my guardians,
Precarious and Tenuous,
Two Romans.
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Nobody knows what I feel about Freddy
I cannot make anyone understand
I love him sub specie aet ernitaties
I love him out of hand.
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He said no word of her to us
Nor we of her to him,
But oh it saddened us to see
How wan he grew and thin.
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I like to get off with people,
I like to lie in their arms
I like to be held and lightly kissed,
Safe from all alarms.
...