17 September 2013
Not Waving but Drowning
Everyone has experienced at least one missed opportunity in their lives. Whether on the giving end or the receiving end, the hollowness in one’s soul that accompanies a missed opportunity never quite goes away. It haunts you for the rest of your life, if you let it. In Stevie Smith’s poem, Not Waving but Drowning, Ms. Smith pieces together a hauntingly beautiful depiction of what it really means to miss out on an opportunity to reach out for help. As a result of that missed opportunity, those in the poem who are affected by it must live with the consequences for the rest of their lives.

As we start reading the beginning of the poem, the use of multiple narrators in the first stanza gives the first few lines a conversational feel. It starts out with a 3rd person perspective, and then switches to first person. “Nobody heard the dead man, // But still he lay moaning: // I w...

-12 -2 -53 -8 1 10th 152 17 1957 2010 2013 3rd 5 9 9th accompani addit affect afraid almost also alway anguish appar around away back battl beauti bedford begin boston carefre chang chap cheer cite close closest cold commit communic complet consequ convers could cri darker dead death deep depict depress describ desper detect diction die discov dread drop drown ed end enough entir eulog even ever everyon exact experi experienc explain explan extend fact far feel final first follow friend funer gave general gentl give goe great hand handl happen happi haunt head heard heart help hidden hint hollow hopeless human hurt illus inde indic insid ironi kind know lark last lay least let lie life lifelong line literatur live look love man mani martin masquerad mean might mind miss moan mourn ms much multipl must narrat never new nobodi often oftentim oh one opportun overwhelm pain paint pass peopl perfect perhap period person perspect phrase pictur piec poem poor predica print probabl put quit reach read reader realiz realli receiv recogn regret reiter repetit rest result said save say second see seem sens septemb settl shake shock short shoulder sign silli smith someth soul speak st stanza start stevi still struggl subt subtl suffer suicid switch take terribl thing third though thought time togeth tri troubl use want warn wave way well whether word work wrap york