Stevie Smith once commented that the people in her poems do not feel at home in this world. With reference to three poems, discuss this aspect of Smith's poetry.

Poetry is seen to be one of the most sentimental and personal pieces of literature a person can write and they often do so to soothe any real-life problems they face out side of the literary world. Stevie Smith's characters in her poems often exhibit a lack of acceptance, but it is interesting to notice that each characters varies in terms of this sentiment. Some characters long for the acceptance of the outside world and …

…bitter because of that. It is also significant that Smith was not a typical woman of her era and she did not conform to the post-WWI and pre-WWII era. She did not marry, have children and become a housewife as most women were expected to become, but was an independent woman with a successful career and therefore from this perspective, it can be argued that she did not entirely feel "at home in this world".