German who Smith became aquainted with. Even after this romance was dashed because of a war, Smith met another boy named Eric Armitage. Unfortunately Armitage was looking for a conventional wife, which Smith practically detested, so they went their separate ways (Stevie Smith 6). In her book Novel On Yellow Paper, she describes their courtship “like a game that has no significance but to play we are engaged…and in our hearts we are beginning to think: Never never can we marry” (Barbera and McBrien 59). Throughout all of these relationship disasters, Smith has one solid relationship that she relies on. This pillar of friendship is based around her Aunt “Lion” whom she was cared for by as a child. In an interview Peter Orr, Smith talks about this relationship. “I live with an aunt who is ninety. I’m very fond of her, but we live alone” (Sternlicht 37). Eventually Smith learns to accept the way women are treated in her society. She goes on to write in her poem,Better that she had kept her thoughts on a chain,For now she’s alone again and all in pain;She sighs for the man that went and the thoughts that stayTo trouble her dreams by night and her dreams by day.(lines 13-16)Through acceptance, Smith sees her life for what it really is due to her choices. However, “she did not anticipate the loneliness waiting in the middle-age desert of biological singlehood” (Sternlicht 8). This solemn void has a significant impact on Smith, but she remains steadfast. Even after gazing over the vast wasteland of this desert, Smith regains a sense of endurance that her “archly crafted, powerfully ambiguous poetic performance strives to negotiate” (Sternlicht 110).The mistrustful, cynical tone in Stevie Smith’s poem “Marriage I Think” is a result of her unique childhood circumstances. This tone can be traced back to hidden feelings from a young age, in ...
