Not Waving But Drowning Analysis

Not Waving But DrowningNobody heard him, the dead man,

But still he lay moaning:

I was much further out than you thought

And not waving but drowning.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.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.

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I believe this poem is about a person who is crying out to be saved by loved ones. The loved ones only see what they want to see. I think that because it says "still the dead man lays moaning" that he is technically not dead. He can still be saved but his friends are oblivious to the fact that there is a problem in the mans life. His friends see what they want to see: a happy, joking man. In reality he has always been out of control. This just didn't happen because one incident. When it says "It must have been too cold for him his heart gave way,
They said.Oh, no no no, it was too cold always
(Still the dead one lay moaning)
They believe that it just so happens his heart gave away in the cold water. But the man interjects and says "it was too cold always" This means that it wasn't just an incident that pushed him over the edge. He had always been on the edge begging for help but his loved ones wouldn't save him. They believed that he perfectly stable, once meaning that they only saw what they wanted to see. They couldn't see reality because they assured each other that he was okay and just joking around. Because Smith mentions that he always loved larking, she implies that even when he is basically dead on the inside they will always believe that he is okay and that something just snapped him over the edge. In reality his loved ones are the death of him because they won't acknowledge his problem even though he is moaning. From of the start the man i labeled dead even though he still lay moaning. This implies that his loved ones could still save him, but because of their indifference he will die, and the truth will never be known. He knows that he is over the edge "Not waving but drowning"
This poem reminds me of a person whos either suicidal or has a serious emotional problem. It reminded me a lot of how I felt when a OLD MAN messed with me when I was asleep. I couldn't tell anyone, but the signs were all there. Instead I just died away inside and everyone assumed that I was just fine. The sad thing is neither I nor the dead man were hiding our feelings. We were reaching out in subtle ways, but our loved onnes assumed we were okay. Really we were both drowning. Breathing underwater.
the only difference is the man depended on his friends to pull him through. They were his only option, but I had enough will power and knowledge of self to pull through.
sorry it wasn't written very well.

| Posted on 2009-12-08 | by a guest

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I love this poem ....it is quite clearly about someone who felt "too far out" all their life ...they did not fit in with the expectations of them and trying to live up to them pushed them under until they drowned.
They had probably, when ever asked, said they would be fine and just moaned in jest, brushing everything off but in actual fact they were becoming further and futher out ... treading water becoming harder and harder until they could not do it any more. Their drive and passion for life gave way (their heart)to the pressure and they gave into the call of death as a form of release.

| Posted on 2009-11-24 | by a guest

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It seems to me that “Not Waving But Drowning” is not necessarily about someone drowning. It is about dying; however, it is more about people who are asking for help in their everyday lives, not just a man who has swam too far out. You know those people, the ones who just seem to be saying hello but in reality it is there feeble attempt at asking for help. These people are “much farther out than you thought”, they seem fine but they are farther gone than you would think. Most often the people who need help the most are the ones who seem to need it least. They seem to love, like the drowning man “larking”. Quite often you would not even speculate that something was amiss. These people feel that the world is “to cold” and eventually they give up - or their “heart[s] [give] way“. They are quite often, like the drowning man, “too far out” but they time you know there is a struggle.
The man in the poems plight reminds me of that of Mercutio. He, like the drowning man, was the clown or fool of the group. When he gets fatally wounded, he jokes about it. “a scratch, a scratch” and “not so deep as a well, nor so wide as a church door” was Mercutio’s reply when asked if he was alright. Being the jokester or the group no on thought anything of it. He then precedes to die. Perhaps this was the drowning man’s plight, perhaps his friends all thought he was joking around and thought he was joking - until it was too late.
- Cassie McCollum

| Posted on 2009-10-25 | by a guest

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I think this is about the ambiguity between crying for joy and crying for help! How far do you let someone cry for help, thinking it's crying for joy before you ask them what they are crying for. For some, it's too late!!

| Posted on 2009-09-05 | by a guest

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This poem to me is about a guy who everybody thought was a happy-go-lucky joker of the group, and so nobody took his cries for help, his waving, seriously, until it was too late, and even when he has gone, they still don't understand him, 'was much further out than you thought' and he is still being taken too superficially, and not being heard because of his reputation as a happy guy who couldn't be depressed or in need of help. Its sad.

| Posted on 2009-07-13 | by a guest

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This poem to me is about a guy who everybody thought was a happy-go-lucky joker of the group, and so nobody took his cries for help, his waving, seriously, until it was too late, and even when he has gone, they still don't understand him, 'was much further out than you thought' and he is still being taken too superficially, and not being heard because of his reputation as a happy guy who couldn't be depressed or in need of help.

| Posted on 2009-07-13 | by a guest

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This poem is about the impossibility of communication. It deals with trying to convey meaning to someone and that person getting a completely different meaning out of it. It is post-modern view on language and its shortcomings, especially when trying to communicate intangible experiences.

| Posted on 2009-05-05 | by a guest

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I dont think it is realistic for a person to get confused to someone signaling out for help for to merely waving to him. He was probably ment to let him die for revenge to get him back at something he did in the past.

| Posted on 2009-04-30 | by a guest

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stevie smith's not waving but drowning is the story of a man struggling through life. i believe that the author intends to have the reder reflect on the mans life and learn from it. i found deeper meaning in the poem by seeing it as a representation of intertwining journeys through life.

| Posted on 2009-04-05 | by a guest

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i thought it was about a man reflecting on his quality of life before committing suicide and the effect that his suicide had on the world afterward.
it starts out very dismal and sad and reflecting and ends with an apathetic reconciliaton (spell check :) about his participation in life.

| Posted on 2009-03-19 | by a guest

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In Stevie Smith’s Poem titled “Not Waving but Drowning,” I found that the theme of the poem is a man that is overtaken by alcoholism and/or drug use. Where he is actually calling for help, but no one can save him. I think the poem shows imagery of a man drowning, and someone being too far away to swim out and save him. But what I interpreted was that maybe the poem is a metaphor for someone that is too far into alcoholism or drug use and they cannot be saved and they are going to die. Particularly, I think it is about alcohol, because it says he is drowning, as if someone were to drown themselves in alcohol. I think the poem is of a man looking down from heaven at his dead body saying, “Nobody heard him, the dead man.” In order for him to be dead already, and to be talking of his own dead body, he could only be reliving his own death threw someone else’s eye’s. So I imagine in my mind a man looking down from heaven watching his body die. I think the writer is referring to himself as being beyond being saved, but he is still crying for help. When I read, “I was much farther out than you thought.” I think that the person he refers to as you, would be the person that he drank his alcohol with, and he is saying, I was a lot drunker than you thought I was. Then it goes on to say for the first time, “Not waving but drowning.” Which to me, it is said sarcastically, in a sense that he is crying out for help, but no one believes him because in the next line it goes on to say; “Poor chap, he always loved larking and now he’s dead… they said.” This is obviously what the people were saying about him after his death. So I interpret this man as being a person that pulled lots of jokes, and some of the jokes were about him either being dead or dying. He was a man that had lots of fun. So back to the part after now he’s dead, it says, “It must have been too cold for him his heart gave way”. I think that this is a metaphor that means, he was too drunk and he died from alcohol poising. When they, the people standing over his dead body, say he must have been too cold, I think that means he must have been too drunk. That is the part that kind of pulls the poem together and gives it meaning. But then the resolution comes and it says, “Oh, no no no, it was too cold always”. I interpret this is saying that he was always drinking and that it’s no one’s fault but his own. Then it goes on to say, “(Still the dead lay moaning)”. The reason for the parenthesis is because it is just referring back to the beginning where he is speaking from his soul in heaven looking down on his dead body and now he is speaking with such a sad tone, that he had from the beginning. I think he is blaming himself for his death by saying “I was much too far out all my life.” He feels repent and guilt for his death because he was the one to make the decision to pick up the bottle and drink. Maybe he feels like he left too early and he didn’t get to finish what he wanted to in life. The poem uses imagery about his death as drowning. If you imagine what it would be like to drown, you might imagine yourself having a good time in the water with your friends and you float too far away for someone to save you, and you are slowly dying. He was slowly becoming addicted to the things that kill him and the more he drank the farther out he swam. So the metaphor to me is talking about a death of habit. That’s why I believe that when he says once again, “and not waving but drowning”, it symbolizes, this time, that he was dying every time he drank, that he was swimming farther and farther away from the group. That he wasn’t waving, having a good time, and playing a joke his whole life, but he was drowning, killing himself slowly. .

| Posted on 2009-01-23 | by a guest

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The poem is disceptively easy.it is a truly brilliant poem,a lot of thought went into it.
posted by:joseph johnston(the comment below was also posted by me!)

| Posted on 2008-12-21 | by a guest

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In summary,Not Waving But Drowning tells us the real identity of a person when the mask is taken off,in otherwords,it shows a what a person is really like deep inside.You have to look under the surface of the poem to really understand it and to appreciate its meaning.

| Posted on 2008-12-03 | by a guest

.: Analysis :.

When you first read this poem you might think that Stevie Smith is writing of a man drowning in cold deep water faraway from shore with his friends happily waving at him thinking he is just waving back. But when you look at the poem more closely and figuratively the poems meaning totally changes. Thinking about the poem literally is reading the obvious a man drowning in the water. But then looking at the diction of the poem the words and meaning of the poem start to change. The meaning of drowning means that he is drowning in work and getting depressed. Not literally drowning in the water. The sentence It must have been too cold for him his heart gave way. It doesnt really mean that the freezing water made his heart stop or anything but figuratively it means life was too cold or sad for him so his heart finally died towards others so he didnt have love or feelings towards anybody. Poor chap he always loved larking means he fooled around with his friends being the funny guy of the group. But really he could be covering up his real sorrow towards life by doing crazy stuff and getting drunk. I was too far out my whole life and not waving but drowning. This line is a very sad tone of a sad man speaking of his life saying he was sad and depressed his whole life and not really waving to his friends but dieing internally. On last thing that can help you understand the poem is when the writer says still the dead one lay moaning. Dead people dont moan especially when submerged under water. It means he was moaning about his whole life.

| Posted on 2008-01-30 | by a guest