We never realise that our colleague’s heart has been broken or see past our boss’ suit to the living person underneath. The title of the poem gives us an immediate indication that the poem will tackle a serious matter.

Paper #1

Smith's Life and Work She is able to hear their words and relays them back in a way that shows an underlying apathy and distaste for the dead.

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... StudyMode - Premium and Free Essays, Term Papers & Book Notes, Disrespectful Children in Today’s Society. Struggling with distance learning? 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. “Nobody heard the dead man, // But still he lay moaning: // I was much further out than you thought // And not waving but drowning” (Smith, lines 1-2).

Smith was born in 1902 and died in 1971 at the age of 41 years. The poem contains three voices; the drowning man, the observers and the people on the beach. Look at the degree of certainty loaded onto the phrase It must have been too cold for him by that little modal verb must. The way Smith utilizes “Nobody” is a crucial component in identifying the living as a speaker. Free verse poetry is used widely by modern poets and many seem to suggest an idea or feeling to the reader.

Syntax and diction play a close role in the word choice, placement of the words, and overall affecting the tone of the poem. It’s hard to decide where the invisible speaker sits: is she on the side of the dead man or a part of the indifferent masses? In the first line, the third person narrator is describing how no one recognized the fact that the “dead man” was struggling, even when he was so desperately trying to communicate his suffering. However after reading the poem a number of times and carefully examining each lines it is easy to find the symbolism, the hidden meaning behind this poem. The quintessential ‘bystander’ poem.

The man had a reputation for ‘larking’, messing around, so he wasn’t taken seriously. He’s not drowning, he’s waving. On a less literal level, the poem speaks to the isolation and pain of being misunderstood, and is a kind of parable about the distance between inner feelings and outward appearance.

The second line of both stanzas end with “moaning,” and the fourth with, “drowning.”. The speaker is continuously misunderstood by the people around him, eliminating the chance to form true and intimate relationships with them.

Including the title, the expression “not waving but drowning” appears three times in this short 12-line poem, emphasizing the miscommunication; the speaker waves his arms to alert other people of his fragile state, but ironically they understand it as a sign of happiness and well-being. The opposition between him and the others is set up in the third line when he says: I was much further out than you thought. On the surface, these people seem to offer consolatory words: Poor chap. Nobody heard him or can hear him now (except for our invisible speaker) but he’s moaning, a word suggesting he’s in pain or in need. In poem one titled 'the craft I left in was called Esau' ,. In the final four lines of the poem the speaker’s emotions begin to come through. "Not Waving but Drowning" is the most famous poem by British poet Stevie Smith, and was first published in 1957. The alienation between the two different personas and the lack of help offered from others cornered the speaker to extreme solutions. The refrain not waving but drowning (including the title, this line repeats three times) is a conceit (a kind of extended metaphor that contains the central idea of a poem) encapsulating Smith’s belief that people’s capacity for empathy and understanding has diminished in the world around her. On the surface the story it tells seems quite simple too, but the thoughts it provokes are disturbing. This poem is a lot darker and a lot denser though.

https://phdessay.com/not-waving-but-drowning-poetry-analysis-95472/, Sheena Pugh’s ‘The craft I left in was called Esau’ Poetry Analysis, Poetry Analysis- in the Station of the Metro, Tell Me What You Eat and I Will Tell You What You Are (You Are What You Eat). They look no deeper into his life or death than what their first guesses give them. It is possible to see, that this character appears at the beginning when is about to die and he is moaning and claiming for help, but nobody sees him, so he is not heard or understood. In addition, the pun on the word, “still”(2), which the speaker uses to describe the dead man, functions in a similar way. The first voice we hear is an example of an invisible voice. And not waving but drowning. She keeps her own voice (the personal voice is employed when the poet wants us to hear her own voice as closely as possible) out of the scene. The speaker continues on to tell her listeners that it has always been “too cold” for her.

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