In the poetry of Margaret Stevie Smith (1902-1971), life and death are constantly being juxtaposed. For Smith, life was usually a painful or tedious experience and death a blessed escape from its misery and futility. Having had a religious upbringing, she is also much preoccupied with God, but cannot accept traditional Christian teaching about redemption and heaven. Death is seen as an end, rather than a beginning and a relief, instead of a gateway to a reward. In Not Waving but Drowning, Smiths philosophy of life as a pointless and sad experience for many people, is focused on the event of a drowning man.
In the style of the poem, she writes characteristically, here, in the off-hand, irregular lyricism – often bordering on the conversational – which is the distinctive feature of her manner. Smith was born in Yorkshire, England but lived all but the first three years of her life in her aunts house in Palmers Green, London (Washington University Libraries). She went to work at a publishing office owned by George Newnes, Ltd. soon after her graduation from North London Collegiate School (Washington Univeristy Libraries).
Although continuing to write through the 1940s and 1950s her work was ignored by critics and the public until about the last ten years of her life (Washington Univeristy Libraries). Smith received the prestigious Queen’s Gold Medal award for her poetry in 1969, two years before her death (Washington Univeristy Libraries). Smith uses simple, short sentences, barely audible to express feelings such as emotional pain, tenderness, sadness, loss, and despair (Sternlicht 63). Not Waving but Drowning is saturated with irony, which is not uncommon in Smiths poetry.
The title alone implies that the poem relies heavily on irony to communicate its message. An implication of an ironic circumstance suggests that the dead man . . . lay moaning: possibly expressing his thoughts even after his death (line 1-2). Also note that Smith uses an imperfect rhyme scheme on the even numbered lines. An imperfect rhyme scheme occurs when the final consonant sounds in two words are the same but the vowel sounds are different. She carefully chooses the words moaning and drowning in line 2 and 4, dead and said in line 6 and 8, and moaning and drowning in lines 10 and 12.
I believe this simple rhyme scheme produces an even flowing poem that effectively expresses characteristics of her bluntness on life and death. The utilization of persona that the poet assumes is an extension of her feelings for life. She is very cynical towards life in general and has an uncanny humor about the invitation of death. The deceased personas indignation at being misunderstood is grotesquely as well as pathetically amusing (Sternlicht 64). In line 5 loved larking or fooling around explains the mans outlook on life.
This use of alliteration the repetition of consonant sounds in consecutive or neighboring words, conveys how he always fooled around which was his way of crying out for help, and instead used this method to mask his problems by having a reputation of larking. Obviously [i]t must have been too cold for him his heart gave way, implies that the cold is what killed the man but not their misinterpretation of him waving to signal for help instead of simply fooling around (line 7). It also shows their ignorance to the mans overall situation and how they dont know his problems.
And not waving but drowning in the final stanza, shows us that during his life he has been not waving but drowning in the sea of life (line 12). The waving this time is disguised as cries for help but people interpreted him as fooling around like usual. Since no one gives him the attention he needs he drowns in his own problems. He mentions this in line 12 again in a sarcastic tone. Continuing with tone in this poem the poet clearly articulates a mournful and ironic poem. The man is dying and waves for help yet no one responds because they think he is just fooling around.
Also note that the man makes a realization that he was too far out all [his] life just before he died, which is symbolic for the way he lived his life (line 11). The theme depicted here exaggerates the fact that people could be misleading in their actions and that they are not always what they seem. The man misleading to everyone makes them think that he just likes fooling around even though he is actually trying to get help while, ironically, he drowns away to ([s]till . . . lay moaning) cold and alone (line 10).
The author of this poem would not be able to effectively present the situation of the literally drowning man progressing to how he is drowning throughout his life in the non-literal context. Without the use of imperfect rhyme, irony, symbolism, persona, alliteration, tone, and theme the poet would have clearly had the daunting task of conveying her message to us with rather unfamiliar and impossible alternative methods. The poets method instead allows her to fully express the true experience of a melancholy and humorously comedic approach to death and inevitably her own extinction as well as our own (Sternlicht 95).