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Not Waving but Drowning" is a poem by the British poet Stevie Smith. It was published in 1957, as part of a collection of the same title. The most famous of Smith's poems, it gives an account of a drowned man, whose distant movements in the water had been mistaken for waving.
- Stevie Smith
- 1957
"Not Waving but Drowning" is the most famous poem by British poet Stevie Smith, and was first published in 1957. The poem describes a drowning man whose frantic arm gestures are mistaken for waving by distant onlookers.
“Not Waving but Drowning” takes place in the aftermath of the man’s death. Write a poem that takes place just after an important or traumatic event. How does the crowd feel or react?
- Stanza One
- Stanza Two
- Stanza Three
The speaker begins this piece with a line that is meant to hook a reader and convince them to continue on through the short stanzas. Smith writes, “Nobody heard him, the dead man.” This is a phrase that, when read literally, seems obvious. Of course, a reader might think, one is unable to hear a dead person. But in the case of this poem, there are ...
The second stanza continues the narrative of the woman in the sea and the man who has already died and washed up on the beach. This stanza is told from the perspectiveof the onlookers but relayed from the speaker’s perspective. She is able to hear their words and relays them back in a way that shows an underlying apathy and distaste for the dead. T...
In the final four lines of the poem, the speaker’s emotions begin to come through. She is reenacting what she believes the dead man must have been thinking as he died, and in turn, what she is thinking now. The speaker is fretting over the situation that she is in, and wishing that somehow she had managed to find a way to make those around her unde...
- Female
- October 9, 1995
- Poetry Analyst And Editor
Speaking of “serious,” “Not Waving but Drowning” is Smith’s most famous poem. This twelve-line punch to the gut is one of her most sober and plainly nihilistic pieces. The poem begins after the central drama has already taken place.
Stevie Smith. 1902 –. 1971. Nobody 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.
‘Not Waving but Drowning’ is the best-known poem by Stevie Smith (1902-71). In 1995, it was voted Britain’s fourth favourite poem in a poll. First published in 1957, the poem fuses comedy and tragedy, moving between childlike simplicity and darker, more cynical touches.
