Not Waving But Drowning, Stevie Smith

Write a critical appreciation of this poem explaining its meaning and how this is conveyed through language and form.

On the first degrees, the poem is about a man who has swum far away from the beach and is now out of his depth. He is waving his arms to try to attract attention because he is drowning yet everybody on the beech believes he is happy and does not react. But, the story is more largely about life itself, people are not always as well as it may seem.

The poem has many enjambment which give it a fast pace yet enable the author to pause the reader wherever he may fancy, for example in the first verse by placing an enjambment after “than you thought” he takes us straight into “And not waving but drowning” which is rather dramatic. Thanks to the enjambment Stevie is able to put emphasis on this sentence’s meaning. “Not Waving But Drowning” as a title is very grim and forces the reader to read on for its creates suspense. It is repeated twice during the poem: at the end of the first verse and as the very last word of the poem. This has a very strong effect because it makes the reader think about what is going on around him, it maybe perceived as some kind of an advertisement. The phrase contains assonance and a deep opposition caused by the “But” with a capital letter. This opposition is made between “Waving” which has rather joyful connotations and “Drowning” meaning death. These once again nail the fact that it is easy to remember and show the poem has a deeper meaning.

The tone of the poem is that of disappointment this is mainly shown through he presence of “Oh, no no no” which shows some kind of regret. The use of the first person suggests that the author was there at the time and witnessed the man drowning. The presence of colloquial language such as “chap” or “larking” also may suggest the writer knows this “poor chap”, furthermore the writer also refers to the man as “him” and even directly speaks