Rachel Sandstrom

17 March 2014
The Poetry of Stevie Smith: Darkly Comedic, Subversive, and Modern
The themes in Stevie Smiths poetry are modernist, ironic, and dark. Modernity paints a
picture of a complex, ironic world which argues against the earnest purity of the Victorian poets,
and Smiths focus on death, and her dark, ironic humor surrounding her themes exemplify the
modernity in her poetry, Smiths humor oftenand quite deliberatelyevokes the fixed smile
and the nervous giggle (Thaddeus, 38). This particular evocation embodies the fear and
uncertainty around modernism, and suggests a mood, rather than focus on a rational point in the
poem, as the Romantics and Victorians did. Smiths poetry follows Confessional poetry poetry
associated with feminism that reveals the traumatic personal events in the life of the poet. This
poetry attracted marginalized poets such as homosexuals, women, and feminists. This style of
poetry happens at the same time as The Movement: Auden-esque modernism with an inward
focus. Poetry in The Movement had ironic, urbane, and fierce anti-romanticism qualities.
Smiths poetry crosses both schools of thought, confessional poetry with ironic and anti-romantic
sentimentalities. Described as silly, Smiths performances featured her in a schoolgirl outfit
reciting her poems in a nursery rhyme-singsong tone. Her performances served to radically
erase the distinction between adult and child (Tucker 65). Smiths poetry and performances
blurred distinctions between adult and child, highlighted paradoxes between reality and
imagination, and subverted traditional gender norms through dark, ironic comedy and an
expanded definition of women that does not include being only a wife and mother.
Stevie Smith was raised in an all-female household, a house of female habitation
(Tuma 264) and had a miniscule male presence in her life. She was well educated and lived
outside of the norms for women at the time, she lived on the margins of the marginalized. Raised
fatherless, Smith became attached to independence. She was formidably intelligent and well
educated. She was not part of the feminist movement, but in the 1970s, second wave feminism
was spreading around the Western world. Women sought to root out sexism and gain more entry
into the workplace. Smiths vehement independence links her with feminism, though she never
identified as a feminist. These elements of her life give her a unique perspective and possibility
for humor, some of her most comic poems arise from her drastic skepticism about romantic love
and marriage (Halliday 295). The skepticism she harbors towards gendered norms and identity
is most clear in My Hat and Pretty. My Hat is a poem about isolation, individuality and
skepticism towards norms, with tonal qualities of ironic disillusionment. The speaker is given a
hat by her mother with a warning that if I wore this hat / I should be certain to get off with the
right sort of chap (1-2). Her mother represents a tradition of femininity contingent on outward
style utilized to attract the opposite sex for marriage purposes. This is a popular ideal of
femininity the very act of performing feminine qualities is for the sole purpose of marriage.
She puts on the hat, and is isolated, on a desert island (3), and the hat has completely run
away with me (6). Her travel to a peculiar island (17) is a long journey, and still the wing
beat and we flew and we flew/A night and a day and a night (14-15). A land where she, a
woman can be independent is a long journey away from her home. This land is odd, It is always
early morning here (17) and the green grass grows into the sea on the dipping land (18). The
island where women are independent is fertile, but not in a conventional way. The fertility of the
land represents her unique femininity. The hat and her identity fuse; accepting traditions of
femininity and what it means to be a woman homogenize women and destroy their individuality.
Her individuality is preserved unexpectedly, Am I glad I am here? Yes, well, I am, / Its nice to
be rid of Father, Mother, and the young man (19-20). Her individual style has taken her where it
was never meant to, to a place of contentedness. Her surprise is portrayed in the commas in the
sentence. The pauses between yes, well and I am (19) indicate a surprise epiphany. She
feared, in flying away with her hat, that she would be lonely, but much like her life, her celibacy
and independence are not lonely, but welcome. Her lack of the young man, her suitor is
refreshing, and she subverts expectations of women by being content without a masculine
counterpart. Her isolation is not lonely or demeaning, but alluring; her only worry is, if I take
my hat off, shall I find myself home again?(22). She continues to wear this hat, a symbol of
homogenization and conformity, but she wears it in defiance, redefining the symbol to signify
her autonomy. The poem ends with a tone of sarcasm. She wouldnt run a risk like going
home; she is fiercely independent and refuses to return to be a wife and surrender her
sovereignty. The speaker of this poem could be interpreted as Smith herself, the poem claiming
her individuality as a writer and a poet. The simplistic symbol of Hat incorporates humor as a
way to expose the idea of a stable ego as laughable (Tucker 43). Throughout the poem, the
tension is between the Hat societal expectations and gender roles, and the speakers desire for
independence. As the poem moves, identity is described in different terms and fears. Her fear of
flying away is a fear of losing herself. This fear is constant in life, as experiences and
expectations change the notion of a stable, fixed personality. My Hat is a poem about creating
identity in the face of gendered institutions, or maternal expectations.
Pretty is a poem that uses a modern sensibility-irony and subversion- to discuss gender.
Smith uses a word commonly used to described women or feminine things to describe vicious
things in nature he stalks his prey, and this is pretty too (5), that arent normally considered
pretty. The hunting imperative is pretty, as well is evasion, The prey escapes with an
underwater flash / But not for long, the great fish has him now / [] / and this is pretty (6-7, 9).
These are subversive and expansive notions of femininity. This poem asserts that gender is not
just performative, but it is predatory and voracious, the owl hunts in the evening at it is pretty
(13) and the predatory nature of femininity is exactly what is pretty about it. Androgynous in
appearance, Smith might relate to the water rat (9), torn between/ the land and water. Not
torn, he does not mind (11-12), content to be in-between, undefinable. The undefinable
quality of pretty is the most important part of the definition, pretty is constantly expanding,
it could always be prettier, the eye abashes/it is becoming an eye that cannot see enough (17-
18). The search for a more expansive definition of femininity is precisely what the second wave
feminists were doing in 1970s Britain. Smith did not identify as a feminist, yet she feared power
of homogenizing discourses to drown out individuality (Anderson). This fear is shown in
Pretty, she expands the definition of the word to include things seen as harmful or to be
avoided, a person can come along like a thief-pretty!-/stealing a look, pinching the sound and
feel (29-30). Even anti-feminist behaviors such as unwanted attention can be pretty. This line
highlights the feminist nature of the poem, drawing attention to the violence inherent in giving
unwanted attention, and connecting it to the predatory nature of pretty in nature. Ironically, her
repetition of the word renders it near meaningless by the end, cry pretty, pretty, pretty and
youll be able / very soon not even to cry pretty (33-34). Overuse and repetition is intentional;
she purposefully dismisses all inherent qualities in the word, which is for the best in her mind, to
be delivered entirely from humanity / this is the prettiest of all, it is very pretty (35-36). The
best of all is to be part of nature, free of stifling definition, outside of norms and consciousness
and society. For Smith, independence and freedom are prettier, more valuable than anything else.
The preference for being a part of the natural world, free of societal conventions is
problematically antiquated, that sensibility is closely related to Romantic poetry, which would
agree with her sentimentality, but her gender would exempt her from the discussion. Smith
juxtaposes a romantic sensibility of connection to the natural world with modern discourse
regarding gender and female independence.
Her colloquial language and loose form is another indicator of her modern tendencies, as
it is oppositional to formal poetry of the Romantic poets. Souvenir de Monsieur Poop is a
poem that embodies all of these qualities. Brazenly colloquial and bordering on the vulgar, this
poem is unrhymed and unmetered, emphasizing her place as a woman outside of tradition.
Souvenir de Monsieur Poop opens with, I am the self-appointed guardian of English
literature (1). This bold statement is a direct argument against classical poets and the tradition of
English literature as a whole. The opening statement establishes the character of the speaker a
high brow, deluded academic. It also separates the speaker and the poet, adding a layer of irony.
Women were rarely, if ever, canonized or considered relevant to discourse. It is during the
second wave of feminism in the 1970s that these issues came to the forefront, and in the third
wave today, it is becoming slowly resolved. Female authors must still fight against the patriarchy
to insert themselves into discourse. This statement is sadly ironic because it was impossible, at
least at the time the poem was written, for Smith to be a guardian of anything. The speaker,
gratifies age, I believe that a writer is wise at 50,/ ten years wiser at 60, at 70 a sage (3-4) and
goes on to praise age while maintaining an undefined youth, because the word undefined is
more useful for general purposes of abuse (8). The praise is ironic, and knowing of the
restrictive qualities of definition and labeling. Writing outside the canonical Classics, she
ironically believes that literature is a school where only those who apply/themselves diligently
to their tasks acquire merit (9-10). Smith writes from the voice of an academic who is devoted
to Shakespeare, Milton, / and, coming to our own times, / of course/ Housman (14-17). This
devotion is void of emotion and unfounded. The allusion to the popular British poet Housman is
proof that he is connected to contemporary greats, as well as devoted to the established classics
(19). Smith, through her speaker critiques the hierarchical nature of English Literature and its
division, in the service of literature I believe absolutely in the principle of division; I divide into
age groups and also into schools (20-21). For this academic, division is what makes Literature
great, but for Smith, it is ridiculous. The notion that dividing literature based on arbitrary
qualifications allows an intellectual to ventilate, in a word, my own political and moral
philosophy (26) strikes Smith as a ludicrous and dark reality. In the world of academia, personal
bias framed as defending English Literature by a person of integrity and essential good humour/
against the forces of fanaticism, idiosyncrasy and anarchy (29-30). The speaker does not
embody those characteristics, as he has already stated that his morality comes into his judgment
of literature. After all of this heady talk of academia and Literature, the poem ends with a
statement about the banality of the business of writing, I do not deem it advisable, in the
interests of the editor/to whom I am spatially contracted, / to say less (38-40). Commenting on
the relationship between the business and art of writing seems to negate the adamant support of
the classics, but rather states that the speaker is pandering to his public. Smith ends the poem on
a note about the business of writing to subvert the illusion that scholastics in English literature
are focused on passion for the craft or the art. Essentially, the compilation of canons, and of
writing itself is spatial contracts and bias.
Critiquing society through her dark comedy is deeply modern in its sensibility. Smith saw
the world as ironic and paradoxical, she saw selfhood as at least partly a creation, something
chosen, and that a kind of self-presentation, if passionately chosen, can grow inseparable from
the self-presented; style can become substance (Halliday 311). The introspective qualities of
self-hood Smith presents are modern. Psychoanalytic theories by Sigmund Freud were gaining
popularity near the time of Smiths writing, and this helped frame her and the early modernists
confessional poet notion of self-hood. Smiths eerie levity is also modern in nature. Death is one
of the most prevalent themes in her work, and yet much of the scholarship about Smith is about
her humor. She uses levity to show the silliness in the world, and also to challenge notions held
for the sake of tradition. Modernists sought after dark themes that juxtaposed the Victorian
notions embraced before them, and are subversive, like Stevie Smith. She seeks to subvert ideals
of gender, societal responsibility, and was a prescient postmodernist and a challenger of
patriarchy (Tucker 41). Her androgynous aesthetic and name are signals of her embracing of her
oppositional nature; she went by Stevie Smith, instead of her given name, Florence Margaret
Smith, a decidedly more feminine name. My Hat and Pretty both assert a theme of female
independence, challenging patriarchy. Pretty challenges societal conventions through
redefining language and gender. Souvenir de Monsieur Poop critiques the society that excludes
Smith, a woman outside of tradition and the literary canon. For Smith, gender is paradoxical and
ironic, just like pretty is visceral. Redefining gender and insisting on independence asserts a
separation between conventional womanhood and wifehood.


Works Cited
Thaddeus, Janice. Stevie Smith and the Gleeful Macabre. Contemporary Poetry 3.4(1978):36-49. Print.
Anderson, Linda. Gender, Feminism, Poetry: Stevie Smith, Sylvia Plath, Jo Shapcott. The Cambridge
Companion to Twentieth-Century English Poetry 15 (2007): 173-186. Print.
Halliday, Mark. Stevie Smiths Serious Comedy. Humor: International Journal of Humor Research
22.3(2009): 295-315. Print.
Tuma, Keith. ed. Anthology of Twentieth-Century British and Irish Poetry. New York: Oxford
University Press, Inc, 2001. Print.
Tucker, Virginia (Dissertation)