Stevie Smith

"This Englishwoman is so refined She has no bosom and no behind."

"Nobody heard him, the dead man, But still he lay moaning: I was much further out than you thought And not waving but drowning."

"So I fancy my Muse says, when I wish to die, Oh no, Oh no, we are not yet friends enough, And Virtue also says: We are not yet friends enough."

"All things pass Love and mankind is grass."

"I wish I was more cheerful, it is more pleasant, Also it is a duty, we should smile as well as submitting To the purpose of One Above who is experimenting With various mixtures of human character which goes best, All is interesting for him it is exciting, but not for us. There I go again. Smile, smile, and get some work to do Then you will be practically unconscious without positively having to go."

"Was he married, did he try To support as he grew less fond of them Wife and family?"

"He did not love in the human way."

"To choose a god of love, as he did and does, Is a little move then? Yes, it is. A larger one will be when men Love love and hate hate but do not deify them? It will be a larger one."

"The religion of Christianity Is mixed of sweetness and cruelty Reject this Sweetness, for she wears A smoky dress out of hell fires."

"I made Man with too many faults. Yet I love him. And if he wishes, I have a home above for him."

"All the same, there is a difficulty. I should like him to be happy in heaven here, But he cannot come by wishing. Only by being already at home here."

"Who is this that comes in grandeur, coming from the blazing East? This is he we had not thought of, this is he the airy Christ."

"No man has seen her, this pitiful ghost, And no woman either, but heard her at most, Sighing and tapping and sighing again, You have weaned me too soon, you must nurse me again."

"The boat that took my love away He sent again to me To tell me that he would not sleep Alone beneath the sea."

"The flower and fruit of love are mine The ant, the fieldmouse and the mole"

"Why does my Muse only speak when she is unhappy? She does not, I only listen when I am unhappy."