Poetry Analysis Not Waving But Drowning
... In the poem "Not Waving, But Drowning," Stevie Smith conveys that communication is not only a difficult skill, but is necessariy to human survival. ... It is with his use of the word "you" in the second line that the poet hints that the mans drowning is in fact a metaphorical drowning due to social misunderstanding, rather than a literal one. It is also by way of the drowning man that the reader learns the bystanders, or the "friends" of the man, did not hear him when he was screaming at them "no no no. ... He waves and screams for help, however he is not heard, and he slowly drowns in the sea. ... When the man goes out "farther than [they] thought," the bystanders can not hear his cries. Society can not understand the man who "goes out on a limb," so to speak, so his ideas are often forgotten and not given a voice.