20th century English
poet. (1902-1971)
Born Florence Margaret Smith in
Hull,
Yorkshire.Stevie originally published
Novel on Yellow Paper in 1936, as well as two additional novels. None met with such acclaim as the nine volumes of poetry that soon followed, and her
reputation as a poet was established.
People have compared Smith's poetry to Blake, Edward Lear and Ogden Nash, but her voice was unique and rather different from her contemporaries. Matter-of-fact language meets archaic words in her writing, and her verse structure can only be described as whimsical...sometimes approaching free verse, sometimes rigidly traditional. Stevie illustrated many of her poems with odd little doodles on the pages. Common themes in her work include religious skepticism, death and suicide, often clothed in dark humor and wry observations.