Exeat

Stevie Smith
I remember the Roman Emperor, one of the cruellest of them,
Who used to visit for pleasure his poor prisoners cramped in dungeons,
So then they would beg him for death, and then he would say:
Oh no, oh no, we are not yet friends enough.
He meant they were not yet friends enough for him to give them death.
So I fancy my Muse says, when I wish to die:
Oh no, Oh no, we are not yet friends enough,

And Virtue also says:
We are not yet friends enough.

How can a poet commit suicide
When he is still not listening properly to his Muse,
Or a lover of Virtue when
He is always putting her off until tomorrow?

Yet a time may come when a poet or any person
Having a long life behind him, pleasure and sorrow,
But feeble now and expensive to his country
And on the point of no longer being able to make a decision
May fancy Life comes to him with love and says:
We are friends enough now for me to give you death;
Then he may commit suicide, then
He may go.

Exeat Themes
Themes and Meanings (Critical Guide to Poetry for Students)
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According to her biographer, Smith first thought of suicide at the age of eight when she was
confined to a hospital, and the power consciously to choose death over life is a common
theme in her poetry. Exeat explicitly confronts two elements of this theme: First, the
desirability of death, and second, the conditions under which suicide can be a rational and
moral choice.
The conditions of life that might lead a poet, or anyone else, to desire death appear both
directly and implicitly in this poem. The opening story of the Roman emperor and his
prisoners invites one to see the speaker of the poem and oneself as captives of a cruel ruler,
forced to remain in dungeons because that ruler will not permit dying. The speaker, like the
prisoners, might beg for death as the one thing most desired. The prison most feared by
the speaker of this poem, however, is not a literal dungeon but rather the prospect of being
feeble now and expensive to his country/ And on the point of no longer being able to make a
decision.
To earn the chance to escape the prison (whether literal or metaphorical), the speaker asserts,
one must live virtuously and produce good work; to commit suicide without meeting those
conditions is impossible. Thus, the human being must keep working and keep trying to be
good, even though he or she is at best a chained captive longing for death as a release.
Having met the conditions of Having a long...
Observing the above stanzas the narrator laments the waiting game of death and give reasons
as to why death should welcome the person or poet into its arms. The poem is straight-forward
enough, with one exception: the continuous question of whenwhen are we acquainted enough
with death to receive its invitation (or to allow it in)?
With the exception of Smiths autobiographical A House of Mercy, Exeat is one of the saddest
poems in her repertoire. In my opinion, it is not a typical sadness, because one of Smiths
strongest gifts is her humor whether it be subtle or overt. If she were alive and still writing today,
she might pen black comedies. This poem has a modern movie essence about it, because it
discusses death (and subsequently, suicide) in ways that buck tradition and maintains that death
is a privilege to attain. It is a statement: on the finality and bliss of death, on suicide and on our
relationship with death and how we covet it whether in good terms or bad.
First published in 1966, three years after the death of Sylvia Plath, I wonder if Exeat (Latin for let
him/her go out) contains another answer to the poets untimely end. According to some scholars,
Plath was a enthusiastic admirer of Smith. It is written that she sought a meeting with Smith but
her death curtailed it. Reading this poem, I wonder how much Plath was on Smiths mind as she
wrote; I wonder if, this was another way for her to attend that meeting they never had, to show
acceptance for the act, to say farewell and maybe express envy for Plaths self-inflicted goodbye.
Stevie Smith was born as Florence Margaret Smith on September 20, 1902 in Yorkshire, England.
Her nick named was Peggy until her middle twenties. Her writers name was given to her by a
friend that said that Florence reminded her of the jockey Steve Donaghue. Stevie Smith lived
through both World Wars. She died when she was 68 years old from a brain tumor.
Forty years after her death, her works are still a mystery.How a dull secretary could "create such a
provocative, vividly unique body of work."(British Writers). Her works of poetry contain hints of
humor with disconcerting seriousness. Stevie Smiths poetry best fit under the confessional
poetry movement in the English modern period. However her poetry is unlike that of her
contemporaries, Wright observed One reason may be not only does she belong to no
schoolwhether real or invented as they usually arebut her work is so completely
different from anyone elses Smith never attended a university. Ashamed of her lack
of education, she took notes of every book that she read. Her readings ranged from
history to literary criticism. The only area she did not read was contemporary poetry.

Her best known poem would be "Not Waving but Drowning". This poem not only influenced
poetics but photographers as well. The picture at the right was taken by Robert Fibunder the
influence of "Not Waving but Drowning".This poem is a example of black humor. The man in
this poem has drowned in the sea ironically while his friends believe that he was waving to them.
There are three speakers in this poem: a narrator, the crowd, and the drowned man. The drowned
mans words state of his isolation from them, and his desperation in his trying to get help from
them. The crowd tells us of the drowned mans life as they know it, full of merriment. They
believe that he got too cold in the water which caused his heart to give way. The drowned man
replies that it was cold always, and he was much further out all of his life.
"Not Waving but Drowning"
Nobody heard him, the dead man,
But still he lay moaning:
I was much further out than you thought
And not waving but drowning.
Poor chap, he always loved larking
And now he's dead
It must have been too cold for him his heart gave way,
They said.
Oh, no no no, it was too cold always
(Still the dead one lay moaning)
I was much too far out all my life
And not waving but drowning.
The last lines of the poem state the theme by "Oh, no no no, it was too cold always/(Still the dead
one lay moaning)/I was much too far out all my life/ And not waving but drowning."(Smith 9-12)
The man in his poem appears to be a joyful jolly man, but inside he is drowning in his own
pretence. He never tells them of his sadness and his feeling of alienation. He fells that the world is
too cold to him and he does not belong. His fries of fitting in by pretending to be what he expects
everyone else wants him to be, but in the end fails. When he knows that he needs help in the end,
his pretending of being someone else backfires; the people in his life misread his desperate
signals. In this poem only the last stanza is the word "he" or "man" omitted, and in its' place is
"one". This omission to the poem gives the reader a clue that this poem is not just about a man
drowning, but can be applied to everyone that feels that they are alone in the world.
Another example of her unique poetry style is "Exeat". A sadistic use of the term friendship is
used in this poem. Both poem examine the negative aspects of friendship. A example of an use of
dramtic wording that is also comically is "Oh no, oh no, we are not yet friend enough."
"Exeat"
I remember the Roman Emperor, one of the cruelest of them,
Who used to visit for pleasure his poor prisoners cramped in dungeons,
So then they would beg him for death, and then he would say:
Oh no, oh no, we are not yet friends enough.
He meant they were not yet friends enough for him to give them death.
So I fancy my Muse says, when I wish to die:
Oh no, Oh no, we are not yet friends enough,
And Virtue also says:
We are not yet friends enough.
How can a poet commit suicide
When he is still not listening properly to his Muse,
Or a lover of Virtue when He is always putting her off until tomorrow?
Yet a time may come when a poet or any person
Having a long life behind him, pleasure and sorrow,
But feeble now and expensive to his country
And on the point of no longer being able to make a decision
May fancy Life comes to him with love and says:
We are friends enough now for me to give you death;
Then he may commit suicide, then
He may go.
Stevie Smith influence many people. After her dealth, her life has been made into two
full-length biographies as well as a play. The play was latter adapted into a popular film
named "Stevie" starring Glenda Jackson made in 1978. Her works continued to influence
literature and art long after her dealth.