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 writer’s 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 Smith’s 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 “school”—whether real or invented as they usually are—but her work is so completely different from anyone else’s…” 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 Fib under 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 man’s 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 man’s 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.