Many teenagers have problems and I was no exception. I was in trouble at home and I was in trouble at school. I was being rejected on both fronts, and I could not talk to my friends (we didn’t, in the 1950s).
Naturally, I wasn’t going to let anyone see how I felt, so I played the clown.
My school was situated by the Thames, as you can see in the picture below. When I read the poem by Stevie Smith, I identified, as many people do, with the drownee..............
Stevie’s father abandoned the family when she was three. Her mother died when Stevie was only sixteen.   To hear Stevie Smith read this poem, click on the link, scroll down and click again (takes a while to load).