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.
Further Reading & Resources
Related Poems
“The Crazy Woman” by Gwendolyn Brooks (1960)
In Brooks’s poem, the speaker, a supposedly “crazy woman,” experiences alienation and isolation. Like Smith’s dead man, the woman is separate. However, the woman prefers to be “further out” (Line 3) and away from the crowd. She does not want to fit in and sing joyously in May or during the spring; she would rather sing a doleful song in November during the fall. Unlike the dead man, the “crazy woman” is bold and confident. Concerning literary devices, the poems share irony and humor: the “crazy woman” is not “crazy”—she is simply different.
“Lady Lazarus” by Sylvia Plath (1965)
Plath was an admirer of Smith’s work, and one of her most famous poems, “Lady Lazarus,” has much in common with Smith’s poem. Both poems use irony and humor—although Plath’s poem is arguably much more vicious. Her speaker mixes waving and drowning. She is a “smiling woman” (Line 19) and a murderous monster: Plath’s speaker declares, “I eat men like air” (Line 74). Plath’s speaker is intentionally deceptive, while Smith’s dead man is sincere. He wants the people to help him, but they do not. People—men, in particular—are not much comfort to Plath’s speaker either, but Plath’s speaker gets revenge that the dead man does not seek.
“Bog-Face” by Stevie Smith (1942)
“Bog Face” features dialogue without quotation marks and characters without names. In “Not Waving but Drowning,” the conversation is between the dead man and the group of people. In “Bog-Face,” the conversation centers on a mother and child. Both interactions are contentious. They touch on alienation and death. In “Bog-Face,” the mother feels distant from her child. She asks, “Why are you so cold?” (Line 2). The kid, unlike the dead man, seems to have made peace with the anguish of the world and are fine with death: They declare, “I shall be glad when it is over” (Line 7). The world-weary child also brings some humor and irony to the disquieting lyric.
Further Literary Resources
Novel on Yellow Paper by Stevie Smith (1936) Smith’s first novel features many of the elements in her poem: alienation, death, misunderstandings, irony, and humor. As the book centers on a secretary who writes a novel on yellow bits of paper, the book, like the poem, lends itself to a biographical reading. Smith was a secretary for almost three decades. As with the novel’s protagonist, Smith also broke off an engagement with a man.
“The Laughing Man” by J. D. Salinger (1949)
While Smith’s poem focuses on a dead man, Salinger’s short story features a laughing man. The laughing man is the star of a story told by the Chief, the leader of a club for young boys. On Saturdays and holidays, the Chief picks up the boys from their houses in New York City and takes them to the park to play sports. After they are done, he tells them stories about the Laughing Man. As with the dead man, the Laughing Man experiences alienation and hardship. The Chief, too, confronts sadness as his up-and-down relationship with his girlfriend impacts the welfare of the Laughing Man. The dead man, the Chief, and the Laughing Man all know what it is like to feel lonely and left out in the cold.
“Stevie Smith: ‘Not Waving but Drowning’” by Caitlin Kimball (2006)
In this article for the Poetry Foundation, poet Caitlin Kimball provides an accessible and straightforward introduction to Smith and her famous poem. She touches on Smith’s background and her reputation. She cites other poems from Smith’s prolific output and connects them to “Not Waving but Drowning.”
Listen to Poem
In this reading, Smith reads her poem after an introduction in which she notes her fascination with the theme of death and relays an anecdote about a cruel Roman emperor.
