Stevie Smith, she of Not Waving But Drowning fame, was known for her witty, caustic, and enigmatic verse. This thought-provoking piece comes from Women's Poetry of the 1930s: A Critical Anthology
edited by Jane Dowson (Routledge, #8.99 paperback).
STERILISATION
By Stevie Smith (1902-1971)
Carve delinquency away,
Said the great Professor Clay.
A surgical operation is just the thing
To make everybody as happy as a king.
But the great Dostoievsky the Epilectic
Turned on his side and looked rather sceptic.
And the homosexual Mr Wilde
Sat in the sunshine and smiled and smiled.
And a similarly inclined older ghost in a ruff
Stopped reading his sonnets aloud and said 'stuff!'
And the certainly eccentric Swift, Crashawe and Donne,
Silently shook hands and thanked God they had gone.
But the egregious Professor Clay
Called on Theopompous and won the day.
And soon all our minds will be flat as a pancake,
With no room for genius exaltation or heartache.
And our children and theirs will preen, smirk and chatter,
With not even the sense to ask what is the matter.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article