nd relationships fretting over loneliness (Magill 3075). The evidence from “Marriage I Think” shows that later in her life, she focused on the abandonment of her mother in a supposedly sacred marriage. Smith grew up in an England where women were to support and submit to the furthering of men, but “broke out of that trap, not with a powerful rebellious thrust of a sword, but subversively, with the stealth of oil (Stevie Smith 16). In her maturity, Smith maintained a calm, passive exterior. “Inwardly she laughed, cried, seethed, suffered, and defended ‘self’” (Sternlicht 24). No matter how much she resisted the female stereotype, Smith was not in the least a feminist. Rather, “Stevie fought the ancient battle against male control alone and in the only way she could: by being herself” (Stevie Smith 105). After growing up knowing the harsh reality of an uncaring husband, Smith realizes that a marriage is nothing more than a mental narcotic that dulls a woman’s perception of reality.Smith’s realization of marriage as a fraud leads to loneliness and heartbreak in her life, most of which stems from her father’s desertion. “Stevie nursed a lifelong resentment against her father. She took the desertion personally, and it made her suspicious of men and their commitments (Stevie Smith 2). Evidence of this grudge can be found in Smith’s lifelong devotion to poetry.But too long in solitude she’d dwelt,And too long her thoughts had feltTheir strength. So when the man drew near,Out popped her thoughts and covered him with fear.(lines 8-11)Within Smith’s writing, a clear and ominously lonely tone appeared. She maily wrote with three separate voices: a child, an adolescent, and a lonely old woman, but the lonely old woman seems to speak the loudest in such poems (Stevie Smith 101). Eventually a ray of hope dawned on the horizon in the form of a ...
