Analysis of “Not Waving but Drowning” by Stevie Smith

Josh Robinson Dr. Joyce Huff ENG 206 Feb 5, 2013 Not moving ridge hardly Drowning People whitethorn non forever be exactly what they await on the byside except as a numbers may wealthy person a deeper gist than the story that is proficient on the surface. The meter Not moving ridge tho Drowning by Stevie Smith is a great example of this. The generator does a real good job at relating the death of a homo by drowning and the reaction it causes in otherwises to the deeper story of how the gentle e machinationhly concern is symbolic ally calling extinct to others who never enumerate to help him get his keep together.In the rise of the poesy, the start-off two lines be somewhat confusing. It refers to the main character as the d.o.a. cosmos but because in the conterminous line it mentions how he is moaning. This is confusing of course because as we all fare, a dead man guttert make sounds. The coterminous condemn though, seems more(prenominal) straightfo rward at showtime glance but as you hightail it farther in the poem its convey might not be so obvious. In the second stanza in that respect is a change from what seems to be the dead man speaking to others talking approximately what he was akin when he was alive.It shows how, to other people, the man seemed happy, but it also seems as though the author means to demote the impression that other people int block that it was this one vitrine that caused the man to ultimately break down. He says in the next stanza however that it was also cold alship coffin nailal which I bet shows that he is grammatical construction that it was not merely one event that caused him to drown. His spotless support consisted of comer egress to others for help but he never received it. In the beginning of the second stanza I would also like to point out(p) how the author added woeful chap reveald with a comma.I trust the commas argon likely used to express that label that the author puts on the man from the viewpoint of others. It, in a way, shows how others may pity this man because of how great he had it until this single event. This is ironic because if you read the poem more than once, youll see that in the death stanza he is essentially saying in the third line, I was much too far out all my life, that he was suffering not simply in the his last moments but end-to-end his entire life.If you look at the ways that the poem is written out, it kind of helps to dissipate the incompatible clues that the author gives to you. In the genuinely first line, it uses commas to separate the dead man. Even though it didnt separate any of the other instances of the author referring to the man as dead, I think that it is written in this way so that you will realize that it might not mean dead in the real sense of the word but in a more symbolic sense. As though to help that idea be emphasized each time that you come across that phrase.Also, if you noticed, And not w aving but drowning was used both at the end of the first stanza as well as the end of the last stanza. In the first stanza it is used merely as a way to get you to recognize the vastness of it when it comes around once again. It is rigid here with the agreement that its true center may not be as clear until the next time that you see it. When you see it again though, you film enough information to where you can start coming to conclusions intimately what the author really meant to symbolize when he express that the man was drowning.In the second stanza, They said is placed in a line on its own which is unusual compared to the rest of the poem. It seems as if it was put there separately to turn tail attention to the contrast between what others concept of this man and how he knew his life to be as well as masking the importance of both it and the line sooner it, which is also abnormal in the position that it is quite a bit hourlong than the rest of the lines in the poem . thither are many poems that say one intimacy but totally mean another.Not e realthing is caustic and white in poetry just as in other art forms. Some may be more difficult than others to see a different meaning behind the text but through clever uses of words, imagery, and symbols just about any poem can be examined more closely for different meanings, thoughts, or ideas that the author is trying to convey. Poems should be scattered down and examined in plane sections. Each section may have different clues as to what the authors underlying meaning could be. This makes understanding the poem as a whole a lot easier.I install it very helpful in this poem (and other poems), as we learned in class, to read into things more and question everything. There could be a simple target that creates a completely different meaning to the poem once you find out its significance. Also, finding multiple definitions or even definitions you might not drive in such as the word larking was ver y helpful. I didnt quite know the meaning of that word, but in looking it up, I basically came up with my entire argument for what I thought the meaning of the poem was.Figuring out a poem is almost like figuring out a puzzle. The only real deflexion is, the pieces arent cut out for you. You have to look at the bigger picture and find the logical pieces to cut out and then examine them individually. When you are make looking at them and figure out how to put them back together they could very well become a completely different picture from the one that you had in the first place broken down into pieces.