In this assignment I am going to talk about two poems, the first one is "Not waving but Drowning" and the second one is "Song". After that, I am going to compare and contrast between these two poems.
"Not waving but Drowning" by Stevie Smith was written in 1957. I found this poem in a selection Faber, 1983. I like this poem because it tells us a serious thing in our life and which the speaker was suffering from that is the death. Actually, when I have read this poem, I felt sorry to the dead man because the victim was obviously desperate to gain his friends' understanding, but fails once again and his voice is the last as the speaker fades to black.
Stevie Smith was born in 1902 in Yorkshire, England. She began writing poetry in her twenties while working at George Newnes. Her first book, Novel on Yellow Paper, was published in 1936.
Gunboat Smith (LOC)
Smith Street, Warwick - no's 55 to 61 Smith Street
Bailey -- Smith -- Weeks (LOC)While Smith's volatile attachment to the Church of England is evident in her poetry, death, her "gentle friend" is perhaps her most popular subject. Smith died of a brain tumor in 1971.
Here we can see as the poem reflects to the culture of poet and speaker lived close to the sea. It might be the speaker saw her lover when he was drowning in the water and that is why she wrote this poem.
As we can see here from the title "Not waving but Drowning", as someone is dead in water. Points strongly to the breakdown of communication and lack of understanding, which resulted in defeat, if not literal death. Totally, the title fits of sadness of death.
The speaker shares her feeling of sadness to the people, through the poem when the speaker says: "No...