Not Waving but Drowning

"Not Waving but Drowning" is a poem by British poet Stevie Smith published in 1957 as part of a collection of the same title.^[1] The work, the most famous of Smith's poems,^[2] describes a man whose distressed thrashing in the sea causes onlookers to believe that he is waving to them.^[3] The poem was accompanied by one of Smith's drawings, as was common among her works.

The poem's relationship to the poet has been the topic of several pieces of literary criticism because Smith was treated for psychological problems, having contemplated suicide at the age of eight due to what she described as a difficult childhood and feelings surrounding the fact that her father had abandoned her.^[4]

Interpretations

Like many of Smith's poems, "Not Waving but Drowning" is short, consisting of only twelve lines. The narrative takes place from a third-person perspective and describes the circumstances surrounding the "dead man" described in line one. In line five the poem suggests that the man who has died "always loved larking," which causes his distress signals to be discounted.^[2]

The image that Smith attached to the poem shows the form of a girl from the waist up with her wet hair hanging over her face. Although the image goes with a poem about a man drowning, the girl's expression appears incongruous with the text of the poem as it forms what Severin describes as a "mysterious smile".^[5] Jannice Thaddeus suggests that the speaker of the poem, like other figures in Smith's works, changes from male to female as part of a theme of androgyny that exists in many of the poems found in Selected Poems.^[6] The sketch differs from the poem in that the figure is of a woman rather than a man, and Smith scholar Laura Severin suggests that the figure might be Mary, a character in another poem by Smith entitled "Cool as a Cucumber." The drawing was used as the accompanying image for the poem "The Frozen Lake" in Selected Poems, a self-edited compilation of Smith's works published in 1962.^[5][7]

While Ingrid Hotz-Davies suggests that the "drowning man" is Smith herself, she also states that there are problems with reading the poem as a cry for help due to the humorous tone of the poem yet at the same time she also notes that the representational form of the poem "may easily be misread as a friendly wave of the hand".^[2] The poem's simple diction led Clive James to suggest that Smith attempted to write the poem so that the diction appeared ignorant of poetic convention yet was carefully crafted to appear more simple than it was.^[8] James describes the relationship between Smith and the speaker in "Not Waving but Drowning" by saying, "her poems, if they were pills to cure Melancholy, did not work for [Smith]. The best of them, however, worked like charms for everyone else."^[8]

Other media

Australian ambient and alternative music group Not Drowning, Waving takes their name from the poem.

The underground '90s emo-hardcore act I Hate Myself recorded a song with the same name on their album 10 Songs. A track of Julian Cope's 1991 album "Peggy Suicide' was entitled "Not Raving But Drowning". The poem is cited in the liner notes as an influence on the song. It was also set to music by singer-songwriter Vic Chesnutt on his debut album Little with a spoken introduction from a Stevie Smith recording.

A very active band in New York City uses the name, and has amassed a strong cult following.

Erin McKean wrote a short story entitled "Not Waving But Drowning" which was published in Machine of Death, a collection of short stories. In it she talks of the poem and the author.

San Francisco-based band The Matches references the poem in their song Little Maggots. San Francisco-based band Citizens Here and Abroad's second album was titled Waving, Not Drowning.

Composer Nina C. Young set the poem in a piece scored for solo viola, piano, and mixed choir.

References

1. ^ Sternlicht, Sanford V.Stevie Smith. Twayne Publishers (1990) p. 63.
2. ^ ^{a b c} Hotz-Davies, Ingrid. "My Name is Finis: The Loneliness of Stevie Smith". Rodopi (1994) p.233.
3. ^ Rose, Gillian. Mourning becomes the law: philosophy and representation. Cambridge University Press (1996) p.38.
4. ^ Walsh, Jessica. "Stevie Smith: Girl Interrupted"Papers on Language and Literature" Vol.40.
5. ^ ^{a b} Severin, Laura. Stevie Smith's Resistant Antics. Univ. of Wisconsin Press (1997) p.71-72.
6. ^ Thaddeus, Janice."Stevie Smith and the Gleeful Macabre," Contemporary Poetry Vol. 111, No. 4, 1978, pp. 36-49.
7. ^ Smith, Stevie. Collected PoemsNew Directions Publishing (1983) pp 393-396.
8. ^ ^{a b} James, Clive. As of This Writing. W. W. Norton & Company (2003) p.127.

External links

• Stevie Smith reading "Not Waving But Drowning" (includes poem text and poet's picture)