“The Heavenly City” By Stevie

SmithBy: Hannah Bryant

Biographical Informational

• Stevie Smith was an English poet and novelist she was also known as one of the most original women poets now writing

• Her writing style is very different from other poets

• Some Critics say her poems are childlike

• Stevie’s writing is a combination of deceptively simple and mannered language

“The Heavenly City” By Stevie Smith

• “I sigh for the heavenly country where the heavenly people pass and the sea is as quiet as a mirror of beautiful beautiful glass I walk in the heavenly field with lillies and poppies bright I am dressed in a heavenly coat polished white when I walk in the heavenly parkland my feet on the pasture are bare tall waves the grass, but no harmful creature is there at night I fly over the housetops, And stand on the bright moony beams gold are all heavens' rivers and silver her streams”

Literary Terms

• One of the literary terms I think are very big in this poem is imagery I think imagery was very big in this poem because the words she uses describe the poem very well and gives you a picture in your head.

• The second one is simile and I say simile because she uses them a couple times in this poem examples such as “And the sea is as quiet as a mirror”

• Rhyme Scheme is another because in the poem the 2nd and 4th lines at the end have the rhyme.

The Structure Of The Poem

• The structure of the poem is 4 stanzas and 16 lines

• There also is a rhyme scheme that happens at the end of the 2nd and 4th line

Authors Purpose

•The authors purpose is about how the author is trying to tell the readers how heaven would look in their description and how they would want heaven to be.

Imagery

• “And the sea is as quiet as a mirror”

• By this quote I think the author was trying to say how the sea was not crashing hard on shore also everything was probably calm

• “At night I fly over the housetops”

• Shows how when she is heaven she can do anything and she imagines herself being happy and all healthy.

Imagery

“I walk in a heavenly field with lilies and poppies bright”

“Tall waves the grass, but no harmful creature”

Literal Meaning

• The poems literal meaning is that the author really means she is going to pass away soon and this is what she will be doing in heaven like for example “I am dressed in a heavenly coat of polished white”

Figurative Meaning

• The poems figurative meaning is that the speaker is in heaven and the speaker is saying the sea is as quiet as a mirror of beautiful glass and the speaker Is walking in heavenly fields and parklands where no creatures or person will hurt the speaker while the speaker is in heaven.

The THEME

•The Theme of this poem is that heaven is beautiful and don’t waste life because it goes by fast.