The Poem Not Waving But Drowning By Stevie Smith

The poem Not Waving But Drowning by Stevie Smith is a three stanza twelve lines imagery poem that uses extended metaphor to illustrate the story. By using different characters and figurative language it helps the reader recreate, analyzes and better interpret the tragic events that is going. The poem is about a man who is very distress but to the outside world has decided to portray a man who is happy with life and have no worries in fear of judgment. His attempt to masked and self medicate his illness just made things worst. He probably made people envious, intimidated and uncomfortable to get to know him better on a deeper level in fear of his judgements. His relunctuancy to communicate his sorrows and pain, eventually brings him to his death. Smith illustrates the deadly affect depression can have on someone in her poem that presents conflicts between life and death concerning depression and suicide. The poem structure form is free verse because it does not have a consistent rhy thm throughout the entire poem. The poem consist of three characters the protagoinist, the dead man and society which all plays a virtal role in conveying the imagery of the tragic event. In stanza one and two the dead man,society and protagoinist are introduced. The tragic event seems to take place out where swimming is allowed and where the dead man drowned. As the tiltle leads us to believe but further into the poem portrays a different scenario as this poem can be interpret in manyShow MoreRelatedAnalysis Of The Poem Not Waving But Drowning By Stevie Smith1193 Words   |  5 Pages Five Poem Assignment 1. â€Å"Not Waving but Drowning† by Stevie Smith has three stanzas, all of which are quatrains and are rhymed abcb . The genre is a lyric and the theme is death and isolation. In the beginning of the poem, the narrator tells us that nobody heard the drowning man or his recounting moans for help yet he continued to cry, waving his arms hoping someone would come and save him. By waving his arms the crowd believed that this was just a friendly gesture so we can interpret that atRead MorePoem Analysis : Not Waving But Drowning1263 Words   |  6 Pages The poem Not Waving but Drowning was published in 1957 and is one of Stevie Smith s most well-known poems. Reading the poem, some may feel a chill of desperation and a sense of longing for someone. The plot of the story is a man s journey to a place of despair ,and no matter what the man accomplishes he will eventually drown.Stevie Smith s Not waving but Drowning uses figures of speech such as imagery, and allegory. The imagery adds a visual to what the characters world is like in his eyes,Read More Black Humor Through Poetry in Stevie Smiths Not Waving But Drowning943 Words   |  4 PagesBlack Humor Through Poetry in Stevie Smiths Not Waving But Drowning In the poetry of Margaret â€Å"Stevie† Smith (1902-1971), life and death are constantly being juxtaposed. For Smith, life was usually a painful or tedious experience and death a blessed escape from its misery and futility. Having had a religious upbringing, she is also much preoccupied with God, but cannot accept traditional Christian teaching about redemption and heaven. Death is seen as an end, rather than a beginning andRead MoreNot Waving but Drowning943 Words   |  4 PagesNOT WAVING BUT DROWNING BY STEVIE SMITH NOT WAVING BUT DROWNING BY STEVIE SMITH The poem ‘Not Waving But Drowning’, by Stevie Smith, is a poem in which there is a drowning man at sea. In this poem, the poet is talking about the difficulty of communication and the fundamental isolation of the individual in modern society. The title of the poem gives us an immediate indication that the poem will tackle a serious matter. The poem contains three voices; the drowning man, the observersRead MoreStevie Smith1938 Words   |  8 Pageshas to do is make a strong communication† (Stevie Smith) Florence Margaret Smith also known as Stevie Smith was a famous English poet and novelist that lived form 1902 to her tragic death in 1971. Throughout her life Smith went through a lot of heartache with her family and especially within herself. When Stevie Smith became acquainted with the face of death, she was fascinated by the melancholy emotions of depression she began to feel. As a result, Smith utilized her emotions relating to neglectRead MoreNot Waving but Drowning Analysis Essay1492 Words   |  6 PagesPaper on â€Å"Not Waving but Drowning† Stevie Smith’s â€Å"Not Waving but Drowning† is a short poem consisting of only twelve lines; however, understanding it is not as easy as it looks because it contains so many factors that make the poem very ambiguous. Smith employs two contradictory tones ironically in the same poem to represent the internal conflict that the speaker is suffering. The poem’s central metaphor of calling out for help while drowning but being misunderstood as waving indicates thatRead MoreNot Waving but Drowning836 Words   |  4 PagesNot Waving But Drowning When a person first read the poem Not Waving But Drowning by Stevie Smith they might think that it is just a simple portrayal of an accident, a person drowning. 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 inconsistent narrations give a clear idea of several sides of the story and making it easier to understand. With the passers-by and the main characterRead MoreWilfred Owen And Stevie Smith On Death1889 Words   |  8 PagesOwen and Stevie Smith on Death Death, especially that of loved ones: it can be a sensitive topic for anyone. The main connotation for the dead is that although not all circumstances can be revealed, the reasons behind their deaths can eventually be assumed by the living. And while that may be true in the physical sense as the dead cannot physically talk about their own deaths, two major British poets tend to disagree with that belief. In their works, both poets Wilfred Owen and Stevie Smith believeRead MoreStudy Notes on Out of the Blue by Simon Armitage3230 Words   |  13 PagesAnalysis of the poem Simon Armitages poem Out of the Blue is taken his from 2008 anthology of the same name. According to the books publishers, the poems in the anthology are presented in the form of a respone to  three separate conflicts, all of which have  changed the  world we live  in. Told from the point of view of an English trader working in the North Tower of the World Trade Centre, the poem forms part of the film Out Of The Blue  commissioned by Channel 5 and broadcast five years after