My Soul

By Stevie Smith 1902–1971 Stevie Smith

In the flame of the flickering fire

The sins of my soul are few

And the thoughts in my head are the thoughts of a bed

With a solitary view.

But the eye of eternal consciousness

Must blink as a bat blinks bright

Or ever the thoughts in my head be stilled

On the brink of eternal night.

Oh feed to the golden fish his egg

Where he floats in his captive bowl,

To the cat his kind from the womb born blind,

And to the Lord my soul.

Source: The New Selected Poems of Stevie Smith (New Directions Publishing Corporation, 1988)

Biography

Calling Stevie Smith's Not Waving but Drowning "the best collection of new poems to appear in 1957," Poetry contributor David Wright observed that "as one of the most original women poets now writing [Stevie Smith] seems to have missed most of the public accolades bestowed by critics and anthologists. One reason may be that not only does she belong to no 'school'—whether real or invented as they usually are—but her work is so . . .

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