16 pages • 32 minutes read
Stevie SmithNot Waving but Drowning
Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1957A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Literary Devices
Form and Meter
The poem is an example of free verse. As the name implies, the poem is free of a rigid meter. Each line can have as many feet—pairs of unstressed and stressed syllables—as Smith wants. The poem can also be free of rhyme, yet Smith includes a rhyme scheme, with the second and fourth lines in each stanza rhyming. The stanzas all contain four lines (quatrains). The lines in Stanzas 1 and 3 tend to be even and have a tidy look. The lines in Stanza 2 vary in length and take on a disorderly appearance, with Line 7 jutting out and Line 8 containing only two words.
The form of the stanzas arguably adds another angle to the poem. The dead man, although drowning, has a grasp. His composed stanzas indicate that he understands what has happened to him. The other people occupy Stanza 2, and the messy line lengths suggest they do not have a carefully-considered idea about what the man is (or was) experiencing.
The uneven number of stanzas reinforces the futility of communication. It feels as if there should be a fourth stanza. The dead man has two stanzas, so it is logical to give the other people a second stanza. However, Smith chooses to end the poem after the third stanza. She does not give the other people another chance to speak—perhaps because there is no further point, as they are not engaging with what the man is trying to tell them anyway.
Juxtaposition
Juxtaposition is a literary device where the poet puts two different things beside one another so the reader can dissect their differences. In the poem, Smith places waving and drowning next to one another in the title and in Lines 4 and 12. This juxtaposition emphasizes how the man is drowning while the people watching him perceive his flailing arms as friendly waves.
The close proximity of the gestures—only a word, “but,” separates them in Lines 4, 12, and the title—indicates the subtle yet substantial difference between being happy and experiencing precarious sadness or mental health issues. The other people think the man is fine, so they interpret his distress as “larking” and waving. In reality, the man is struggling until, left without help, he ends up “dead.” Thus, the juxtaposition between waving and drowning creates another juxtaposition: the difference between the dead man and the other people. The other people are alive and have each other, while the man is alienated and by himself, and left to drown.
Irony and Humor
Irony is a literary device where the poet confounds the reader’s expectations. In other words, the poet uses irony to make a clever, unexpected point. The irony in Smith’s poem relates to the dead man. The speaker introduces “the dead man” and states that “[n]obody heard him” (Line 1). This is ironic because it makes sense that nobody could hear the dead person—he is dead, and dead people do not talk.
The speaker advances the irony when the dead man moans about the mistaken assumptions of the other people. The dead person is not dead—at least, he is not exactly “dead” in the usual sense. He is aware of what is happening and tries to engage the other people in a dialogue. Thus, the atmosphere teems with irony or sharp twists. There is a dead man trying to speak to people, but these people have already made up their minds about the dead person—he is dead because of “larking” (Line 5) and the “too cold” (Line 7) water.
The irony gives the poem a sense of humor. Humor is a literary device that can help make a difficult or dark subject easier to tackle. Alienation and mental health issues can be difficult topics, so Smith uses dark humor to make the subject more accessible. The irony and misunderstanding turn the situation into a comedic scene. The informal diction—“[p]oor chap” (Line 5) and “[o]h, no no no” (Line 9)—adds to the levity. It is as if the characters are not speaking about life or death but some kind of innocuous, everyday misunderstanding. The nonstandard grammar also makes the poem less officious and more quirky and informal.
