16 pages • 32 minutes read
Not Waving but Drowning
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Summary and Study Guide
Overview
“Not Waving but Drowning” is a lyric poem by English poet Stevie Smith. Smith drew and wrote novels, essays, and plenty of poems. The poem appeared in her 1957 collection of the same name. The poem speaks to the atomized, lonely existence commonly associated with modernity, suggesting that people need to carefully watch and listen to others to understand what they are going through. Frequently, people make assumptions about others, and such uncritical opinions can have dire consequences. Scholars and critics generally consider “Not Waving but Drowning” her most famous poem and one of the most well-known poems of modern England.
Smith has a reputation as a literary eccentric, so her work does not align neatly with a specific literary period or movement. However, the poem’s main themes and ideas—including misunderstanding and individual alienation—connect her to Modern and Postmodern poets such as T. S. Eliot and Sylvia Plath, with the latter being an open admirer of Smith's work.
Content Warning: This study guide references suicide ideation, death by suicide, and mental health conditions.
Poet Biography
Stevie Smith was born in Yorkshire, England, on September 20, 1902. Her parents named her Florence Margaret, but, later, while riding a horse in London, a group of cheeky boys cried, “Come on, Steve!”—an Unlock all 16 pages of this Study Guide Plus, gain access to 8,900+ more expert-written Study Guides. Including features:
