Stevie Smith And Marriage Essays - Stevie Smith, X, Stevie

Stevie Smith And Marriage Stevie and Marriage: Preface Florence Stevie Smith grew up in unstable family conditions. Her family was falling apart, and she observed every moment with hushed censure. These repressed feelings can be seen in her poetry. Her unfortunate childhood experiences attribute to a mistrustful, cynical tone in her poem Marriage I Think. For sources I have consulted three separate levels of libraries. At the high school library I found a series called Critical Survey Of Poetry that has been most helpful in providing background information on Smith, as well as critical reviews of some of her poems. The Shippensburg Public Library as well as the Bosler Library has provided a collection of Smiths later poems (of which I chose my focus poem) called Me Again, as well as The Norton Anthology Of Literature By Women that has helped with finding out about Smiths childhood and other biographical information. The Dickinson College Library has been most helpful. There I checked out Stevie Smith, In Search of Stevie Smith, and Stevie, all of which contain vast amounts of research into her childhood and younger years as related to her later poems, thus providing a wealth of both criticism and biographical information. I have also consulted numerous websites to look for her poems and other information, but with very little success. I have two main sections to my paper, excluding my introduction and conclusion. The first section contains information about Smiths view of the institution of marriage. This section provides evidence from the focus poem, Smiths friends, as well as her own life. The second section of my paper contains information regarding the way in which she saw men or interacted with them as a result of her childhood. It has evidence from her further literary works, her own life, as well as interviews with friends. Stevie and Marriage Florence Stevie Smith grew up in unstable family conditions. Her family was falling apart, and she observed every moment with hushed censure. These repressed feelings can be seen in her poetry. Her unfortunate childhood experiences attribute to a mistrustful, cynical tone in her poem Marriage I Think. Smiths poem Marriage I Think contains many references to her belief that the bond of marriage between a man and a woman is fraudulent, particularly for the woman. Her poem reads, Marriage I think For women Is the best of opiates It kills the thoughts That think about the thoughts, It is the best of opiates. (lines 1-6) By comparing marriage (for women) to a mind-numbing narcotic, Smith clearly uses a pessimistic tone. She contends that the marital bond, contrary to popular belief, hurts women on the inside. In 1906 4-year-old Smith, her ill mother Ethel, sister Molly, and aunt Margaret are deserted by her father Charles, the main support of the family. Charles grows bored with the marriage, and abruptly sets out on his childhood dream of becoming a naval officer (Sternlicht 4). At this point, Smiths family of four women, including two children and a sick mother, are left to fend for themselves, with the care of Smiths aunt. In another one of Smiths poems entitled Papa Love Baby, she writes that she wished mama hadnt made such a foolish marriage./it showed in my eyes unfortunately/And a fortnight later papa ran away to sea (Barbera and McBrien 9). As she grows up in a predominantly feminine household, Smith dwells on her fathers family desertion. She jokes that for many, marriage is a chance clutch upon a hen-coop in mid-Atlantic (Barbera and McBrien 65). The evidence in the poems points to feelings of loneliness and abandonment. Smith also wrote in her poem Every Lovely Limbs a Desolation about women who are caught up in dead-end relationships fretting over loneliness (Magill 3075). The evidence from Marriage I Think shows that later in her life, she focused on the abandonment of her mother in a supposedly sacred marriage. Smith grew up in an England where women were to support and submit to the furthering of men, but broke out of that trap, not with a powerful rebellious thrust of a sword, but subversively, with the stealth of oil (Stevie Smith 16). In her maturity, Smith maintained a calm, passive exterior. Inwardly she laughed, cried, seethed, suffered, and defended self (Sternlicht 24).