‘The Poet Slanders’: Stevie Smith’s War Poetry

Abstract

War poetry is commonly understood as combat poetry from a male witness. This article examines the poet Stevie Smith and her authoritative witness of the Second World War, from a female, non-combatant perspective. It begins by outlining critical responses to Second World War poetry, before offering detailed analysis of selected Smith works alongside their critical reception, and parsing Smith’s subversive tactics with reference to socio-historical as well as literary context. By analysing a handful of her poems in close readings, it becomes clear that Smith used a number of poetic devices to expose the artifice of literary responses to war. Smith's use of euphemism, rhyme schemes, illustrations, poetic self-reflexivity, and intertextual allusions to propaganda and poetry, affirms the importance and innovation of her voice in questioning the codification of ‘war poetry'. She slips between subjectivities, voices, and perceptions to emphasize and bourgeon her poetic self-fashioning. Her language is purposefully variable, ambivalent, sometimes contradictory, seeking always to undermine the concept of a single authoritative response to war.