Top-Rated Free Essay
Preview

Not Waving but Drowning (Poetry Analysis)

Good Essays
422 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Not Waving but Drowning (Poetry Analysis)
Not Waving But Drowning (Poetry Analysis)

In the poem by Stevie Smith, Not Waving But Drowning there are a number of elements that are intriguing and to the reader. The poem is mostly spoken from a narrative point of view, but it may infer a first person perspective because it centers on a man who is apparently misunderstood by those around him, including the speaker that recalls the tragic scene. The poem paints a conflicting image of a man that has fallen to the sea because despite his efforts in seeking help, his outward appearance and his behavior betray his true desperation.

Not Waving But Drowning’s poetic form that is seemingly free verse, as it does not have a consistent rhythm throughout the entire poem, although it does consist of some rhyming and some element of structure:
“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 (Smith, 1957)”.
Free verse poetry is used widely by modern poets and many seem to suggest an idea or feeling to the reader.

The poem also consists of an interesting use of symbolism that may suggest an underlying subject that is being addressed. In the poem, Smith may be trying to convey personal thoughts about abandonment to the audience. This can be referred to the fact that Smith herself had a difficult past with the passing of her mother in her early adult life and that her father had left his family behind to pursue a career in sailing (Booth, 2002). The poem seems to incorporate metaphors of an ocean and how a drowning person’s callings for help may be misinterpreted for joyous hand gestures of ‘waving’.

The sound and tone of the poem is serious, given that it seems to touch on the subject of death, confusion and desertion. The use of words in Stevie Smith’s Not Waving But Drowning seem to have limited use of alliteration due to its free verse structure, as this example shows:
“Nobody heard him, the dead man,
But still he lay moaning:
I was much further out than you thought
And not waving but drowning (Smith, 1957)”.
Although there is a distinctive use of assonance in the poem as the words “moaning” and drowning” have similar vowel sounds.

References

Clugston, R. W. (2010). Journey into literature. San Diego, California: Bridgepoint Education, Inc. Retrieved from https://content.ashford.edu/books

Booth, A. (2002). Stevie Smith. Critical Survey Of Poetry, Second Revised Edition, 1-8.

References: Clugston, R. W. (2010). Journey into literature. San Diego, California: Bridgepoint Education, Inc. Retrieved from https://content.ashford.edu/books Booth, A. (2002). Stevie Smith. Critical Survey Of Poetry, Second Revised Edition, 1-8.

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Figurative Language

    • 501 Words
    • 3 Pages

    In the poem “Death of a Young Son by Drowning,” Margaret Atwood uses different uses of figurative language to explain the pain of losing a child. The speaker of the poem has recently lost a child to drowning. The pain of losing a child is uncomparable to anything in the world, and Margaret Atwood uses the title, tone, language and structure to describe the pain. The author uses different similes and metaphors to describe her son’s recent death. The title of the poem is essential as it sets the tone for the rest of the poem. Before the reader begins to read the poem they will read “Death of a Young Son by Drowning,” after reading that title they will then see the focus of the poem. The title shows that the poem to follow will be serious, sad,…

    • 501 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The Bass Symbolism

    • 154 Words
    • 1 Page

    The narrator also uses imagery to emphasize how nature and fishing makes him happy. It was a “solitude”, a “corridor of hidden life that ran between the banks like a tunnel”(Weatheral 2). He describes how the river makes him feel. It makes him feel at peace at the…

    • 154 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Common Magic

    • 565 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Figurative imagery was also used throughout the poem. The author uses them to express what the person is feeling or thinking. When he says, “her brain turns to water,” he is stating that she is not thinking about the real world because she is too busy concentrating on love. “The waitress floats towards you,” this explains how the speaker is in a crowded restaurant therefore the place is busy and the odds of her coming to take his order is very low, which makes her extraordinary and it seems like she is a angel floating. “His voice is a small boy turning somersaults in the green country of his blood,” which states that the old mans’ singing is calming and transports you to a joyful place, which helps forget the fact that it is just an old man on the bus.…

    • 565 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Hamlen Brook

    • 417 Words
    • 2 Pages

    I also noted that he used a lot of words that began with the letter S. He used words like stream, slow, sliding, and skimming. This gave me the sense of tranquility and peacefulness. The last and second to last stanza seemed to end those feelings and jar me back to a reality. He used words like plunge, drown, dry and ache.…

    • 417 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The poem is highly metaphorical and symbolic. The story, on the surface, really is about swimming in the ocean alone. However, as we readers examine further, it’s quite obvious that there are meanings behind this superficial image. As a matter of fact, the ocean is a metaphor of greatness and mystery. We can also perceive it to be a symbol of life as we all “swim” in this ocean and are truly uncertain about what will happen next. The image of seaweed shadows is apparent in the first stanza, and they can apparently be seen as obstacles that we encounter in the journeys of our lives. In the third paragraph, the poet addressed that in the end, it is only a “drifting body” or a “dolphin”. This seems paradoxical because drifting body is a symbol of death and mortality, whereas, in sharp contrast, dolphins are universally viewed as creatures that are nimble and lively. The use of two completely polar things implies the uncertainty of life and supports the idea that life is fundamentally fearsome.…

    • 606 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    “Young sister going swimming” By M. Atwood is an extra-ordinary poem talking about the younger sister experiencing the lake that they came upon to. The lake symbolizes desolation meaning no one ever comes to it and is surrounded with the speciality of nature. The use of nature of this poem intertwines with the attitude and the atmosphere that apparent the feeling within the author and her younger sister. Nature also acts like a healing or a getaway resort for the both of them, expressing the outcome of “enjoying their free time”. Their attitude demolishes their social views and leave behind civilization. The atmosphere is a secluded, speech-free environment that tranquil their inner depth of freedom and peace, “Beside this lake, where there are no people”. The surroundings of the “trees, rocks, and the circling bays and hills” subdues the higher standards of loneliness and the intake of isolation. As the poem progresses, the author zooms into the sisters physical manner. “Against the boards, her feet make sad statements, she thinks no one can hear” says that she is thinking of something in particular. The use of syntax develops in the brackets as shown to shift the different information from the author to the younger sister. The author brings in paradox when she talks about the sister continuing “her short desolate parade to the end of the dock”. The dénouement clinches with the beginning of the sixth stanza when the author marks her page to go into the rippled water with her…

    • 256 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    References: Clugston, R. W. (2010). Journey into literature. San Diego, California: Bridgepoint Education, Inc. Retrieved November 28, 2011, from https://content.ashford.edu/books…

    • 573 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    The Drowner

    • 986 Words
    • 4 Pages

    The title of the novel can be interpreted both on a literal and metaphorical level, which clearly establishes water as a motif and metaphor throughout the novel. ‘Drowning’ refers to the act of controlling the flow of water, and is done by a ‘Drowner’ who is a rural water engineer who is responsible for keeping the fields fertile. In the first section of the novel, ‘The Art of Floating Land’, readers are introduced to the character of ‘Alphabetical’ Dance and his occupation as a drowner, sustaining life through the act of drowning, and hence water is established as a life-giving force. On a more metaphorical level, the word “drowning” has connotations of death. Thus, the title juxtaposes the idea of water as a life-giving force, and introduces it as a life-taking force, constructing the duality of water which is a central theme throughout the novel.…

    • 986 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    References: Clugston, R. W. (2010). Journey into literature. San Diego, California: Bridgepoint Education, Inc. Retrieved from https://content.ashford.edu/books…

    • 882 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Within this poem is a lovely array of splendid imagery that allows the reader to truly feel as if they were there experiencing the memory themselves. When describing her surrounds they are idyllic, and pure. Even the dangers of the trip such as the jelly fish, or the steering of the boat, are never referred to as scary or unsafe, but calm…

    • 512 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    References: Clugston, R. W. (2010). Journey into literature. San Diego, California: Bridgepoint Education, Inc. Retrieved from https://content.ashford.edu/books…

    • 1085 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    While reciting a boat voyage with her dad and brother, Woolf expresses her joy of catching a fish. She manipulated sentence structure to describe how she truly felt about this act. In the first part of the excerpt, Woolf uses short, broken up sentences to transmit the thrill of catching her first fish. She states, “there was a little leaping tug; then another; up one hauled;”…

    • 385 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    In the story, “Touching Bottom” by Kari Strutt, the theme is to not give even when one hits rock bottom. This is demonstrated in the story when, Ian is drowning in the ocean because the current is dragging him down and he is unable to swim due to a cramp development in his leg. Saving Ian is very challenging for the narrator because at one point Ian is struggling to keep his head above water and while doing so he accidently pushes the narrator below, deep in to the ocean and now she is having difficulty breathing and striving to survive. In order to save herself from drowning, the narrator pushes herself further down into the ocean and realizes that the bottom was not actually as far as she had assumed. After she resurfaces, the narrator has to swim with Ian on top of her to get him back to safety all while fighting against a current. At one moment the narrator thought she could not continue and she asks Ian to swim for himself but he is unable to do so. At that moment she feels like she has hit rock bottom because she is not able to swim much longer due to her aching joints and emerging injuries such as; big bleeding welts on her arms and back, and a splintered shoulder. Throughout the course of this life changing experience the narrator has to watch her much older husband flirt with another woman on the beach without caring about their life threatening situation. However, she has a flashback, that motivates her to keep swimming to save her step son and eventually she finds a human willing to lend her his board to help bring Ian back to shore. In conclusion, while struggling to stay alive and rescue Ian, the narrator felt that she had hit rock bottom at the beach and in life but she fought through it all and moved on.…

    • 328 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    He fished for a living, to keep his wife happy, but he was never truly a fisherman. He did not enjoy fishing like the rest of his wife’s family did. His skin was not tough enough as “the salt water irritated his skin as it had for sixty years…and his arms, especially the left, broke out into the oozing saltwater boils”. (paragraph 60) The sun and wind took a toll on his body that the others did not experience. To him, the boat held emotions such as pain, despair and struggle. He would rather be inside, reading and learning, but was instead forced to…

    • 632 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Island Man and Blessing

    • 3552 Words
    • 15 Pages

    Nichols does this to give the reader more information about the poem as well as to add realism to the situation. The poem is written in free verse, which gives the poem a rhythm and means the poem flows effectively. This allows the thoughts within the poem to merge freely into one another, which could reflect the constant theme of the sea, the flow of the water and the way the waves break. The theme seems to be how the lack of water affects him mentally.…

    • 3552 Words
    • 15 Pages
    Good Essays

Related Topics