The Untimely Stevie Smith

Abstract

This essay considers the role of the untimely in the work of Stevie Smith. It explores motifs of belatedness in her reception history, suggesting how her own authorial persona and public presentation encodes this response. It examines the notion of the last-minute in her work, focusing on motifs such as disruption, elongation and delay. It suggests how her revision practice responded to the idea of being ‘too late’, with the moment of publication providing her with further prompts to revise her work. It focuses on final words and endings in her poetry and frames her interest in Christianity through ideas of temporality and form.

Keywords:

• Stevie Smith
• time
• untimely
• faith
• form
• poetry
• publishing

Notes

1 Curtis Brown to Stevie Smith, 28 June 1934, Stevie Smith Collection, McFarlin Library, University of Tulsa.

2 Stevie Smith to Rose Macaulay, undated letter, Stevie Smith Collection, McFarlin Library, University of Tulsa; the review appeared in The Guardian, 16 Dec. 1966, p.7.

3 Stevie Smith to Naomi Mitchison, undated, National Library of Scotland.

4 Stevie Smith, ‘Modern English Literature’, Stevie Smith Collection, McFarlin Library, University of Tulsa.