Readings: My Discovery of a Quirky Poet

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I was recently prompted by this post on the (rather liberal) Catholic blog, Vox Nova, to borrow two books from the library containing writings by English poet and novelist, Stevie Smith. I had heard the name before, but don’t remember ever reading any of her works, unless it was by random chance in some anthology, or another, long ago.


At any rate, I found the blog post interesting and have enjoyed reading some of her quirky, entertaining, often humorous poetry. I borrowed a collection put out by New Directions (New Selected Poems of Stevie Smith), and the book Me Again, which is a collection of reviews, articles, poems and letters published by Smith herself. Below is a poem from the New Directions selection that I particularly liked:


To Dean Inge Lecturing on Origen

Listen, all of you, listen, all of you,
This way wisdom lies,
To reconcile with the simplicity of God
His contingent pluralities.

Oh, the wise man sat in his chair,
And oh, the people they would not hear,
They said, It is much too deep for us,
And they turned to the Differential Calculus.

Oh, if the people had only heard
Him,
Oh, if that wise man’s word was not blurred,
Not dimmed.


I recommend a perusal of Stevie Smith’s writings to anybody looking for something different to read.
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