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Although 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
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The poem's personal significance has been the topic of several pieces of literary criticism, because Smith was treated for psychological problems. She contemplated suicide at the age of eight, after what she described as a difficult childhood and her struggle with the fact that her father abandoned
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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. James describes the relationship between Smith and the speaker in "Not Waving but
Drowning" by saying, "her poems, if they were
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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 Smith scholar Laura
Severin
36:. It was published in 1957, as part of a collection of the same title. The most famous of Smith's poems, it gives an account of a drowned man, whose distant movements in the water had been mistaken for waving. The poem was accompanied by one of Smith's drawings, as was common in her work.
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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.
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Severin suggests that the figure might be Mary, a character in another poem by Smith titled "Cool as a
Cucumber". The drawing was used as the accompanying image for the poem "The Frozen Lake" in
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describes as a "mysterious smile". 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
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used the poem's title for his sophomore album of the same name. The title track features Stevie Smith commenting on the poem over piano chords composed by Jordan Rakei.
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is titled "Not Waving But
Drowning". Alongside the title, the track's lyrics seem to loosely reference and paraphrase parts of the poem.
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pills to cure
Melancholy, did not work for . The best of them, however, worked like charms for everyone else."
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as the "Narrator" (...but still he lay moaning), and Nick
Lathouris as the "Dead Man" (I was too far out...)
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Like many of Smith's poems, "Not Waving but
Drowning" is short, consisting of only twelve lines. The
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Hotz-Davies, Ingrid. "My Name is Finis: The
Loneliness of Stevie Smith". Rodopi (1994) p.233.
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paraphrase the title and theme of the poem in their song "Not Waving", from their 1979
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wrote a short story entitled "Not Waving But
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recorded the song "Not Waving But Drowning" as part of the sessions for the
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album. The track would ultimately end up as a bonus track on the single "
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set the poem in a piece scored for solo viola, piano, and mixed choir.
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a self-edited compilation of Smith's works published in 1962.
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Thaddeus, Janice."Stevie Smith and the Gleeful Macabre,"
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Mourning becomes the law: philosophy and representation
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was titled "Not Raving but Drowning" after the poem.
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set the poem to music as the b-side to her single "
77:as a friendly wave of the hand". The poem's simple
94:The poem was performed as part of the 1976 album
275:Walsh, Jessica. "Stevie Smith: Girl Interrupted"
202:In the first episode of the 2020 Netflix series
127:The poem was set to music by singer-songwriter
109:Australian ambient and alternative music group
439:Stevie Smith reading "Not Waving But Drowning"
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320:New Directions Publishing (1983) pp 393-396.
211:The final track of the Welsh art punk band
96:Tears of Steel & the Clowning Calaveras
336:. W. W. Norton & Company (2003) p.127.
294:. Univ. of Wisconsin Press (1997) p.71-72.
277:Papers on Language and Literature" Vol.40.
65:that exists in many of the poems found in
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383:"Tanita Tikaram – I Might Be Crying"
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307:Vol. 111, No. 4, 1978, pp. 36-49.
239:. Twayne Publishers (1990) p. 63.
32:" is a poem by the British poet
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180:British confessional rapper
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411:"Not Waving But Drowning"
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415:www.bigcountryinfo.com
235:Sternlicht, Sanford V.
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348:"Not Drowning Waving"
175:eponymous debut album
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111:Not Drowning, Waving
19:For other uses, see
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305:Contemporary Poetry
187:Scottish rock band
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334:As of This Writing
205:The Queen’s Gambit
193:Peace In Our Time
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352:Howlspace
215:'s album
171:This Heat
162:Composer
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