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Article: Contributions to almighty truth: Stevie Smith's seditious romanticism.
- Article from:
- Twentieth Century Literature
- Article date:
- December 22, 2003
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2003 Hofstra University. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Stevie Smith first came into critical radar under the aegis of biographical study, which tends to submerge her unique work into the portrait of an English eccentric. Smith herself called being prized for eccentricity "a sad fate" (qtd. in Barbera and McBrien 243). The eccentricity of her poetry--its disparate sources, silly rhythms, and strange rhymes--might bear study. I would argue that it can be fruitfully studied as a pose: by posing as an insignificant doodler, Smith covers up what turn out to be traditional romantic assertions of poetic authority. Rather than abjuring claims to poetic vision, her poetry pretends not to aspire to authority even as it quietly seizes ...
Related newspaper, magazine, and journal articles:
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Article: Stevie Smith: A Biography.
The New Leader;
September 18, 1989 ;
631 words
... ... properly appreciate characters like Stevie Smith and Philip Larkin. Neither of ... Neurotically modest, he refused. Stevie Smith's bravura public readings of ... personalities. Frances Spalding's Stevie Smith: A Biography (Norton, 331 pp ...
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