Stevie Smith

I like to get off with people,
I like to lie in their armsI like to be held and lightly kissed,
Safe from all alarms
I like to laugh and be

My life is vile          I hate it so          I'll wait awhile          And then I'll go
Why wait at all
Hope springs alive,          Good may befall          I yet may thrive
It is because I can't make up my

Deeply morbid deeply morbid was the girl who typed the
Always out of office hours running with her social
But when daylight and the darkness of the office closed about
Not for this ah not for this her office colleagues came to doubt

Tender only to one Tender and true The petals swing To my fingering Is it you, or you, or you
Tender only to one I do not know his name And the friends who fall To the petals’ call May think my love to blame
Tender only to one This petal...

Happiness is silent, or speaks equivocally for friends,
Grief is explicit and her song never ends,
Happiness is like England, and will not state a case,
Grief, like Guilt, rushes in and talks apace

Never again will I
And wring my
And beat my head against the
Me nolentem fata

Do not despair of man, and do not scold him,
Who are you that you should so lightly hold him
Are you not also a man, and in your heart Are there not warlike thoughts and fear and smart
Are you not also afraid and in fear cruel,

Our Bog is dood, our Bog is dood,
They lisped in accents mild,
But when I asked them to
They grew a little wild

Tenuous and
Were my guardians,
Precarious and Tenuous,
Two Romans

The shadow was so black,
I thought it was a cat,
But once in to itI knew
No more

Christ died for God and
Upon the crucifixion
For God a spoken
For me a

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,