Introduction to Literature (A)
Emily Tang (495200093)
Jennifer Chiu
Nov. 17, 2006
“Not waving but drowning” by Stevie Smith
My initial response (11/14)
My response to my initial response (11/17)
Why did the dead man keep moaning while no body truly heard him？
As far as I’m concerned, his act of making unheard moaning was Smith intention to indicate the miserable situation the dead man belonged to. The word ‘unheard’ represents not only his tragic voice could not be heard but also the fact that no one would give the dead man a hand or rescue him from his deep depression. Due to the coldness ignorance from the world, the dead man thus moaned more. It truly led to the endless rolling of vicious circle. And he would never stop moaning.
Why did the dead man think his intended movement of being drowned could represent his concept that he was much further out than we thought?
Because most people own the average perspective that instead of getting drowned, waving and asking for help is a wiser movement. But in this poem, these people will never know the sadness behind the suicidal judgement of the dead man. At this section, Smith again stressed the miserable situation that the dead man would rather die than wave and ask for opportunity to survive.
What can ‘you’ in line three represent in the poem? and what’s the significance behind it?
In my opinion, ‘you’ could be referred to cold people who left a blind eye on dead man’s depression when he was still alive but uttered their late pity after his death. Also, ‘you’ in line three represents the common views and morals of our cruel society which hears no howling of failures but the laughter of winners.
Why the gloomy tone of the first stanza should suddenly switched into such an easy one at the beginning of the second stanza, what’s the significance behind it?
It was Smith’s intention to indicate the unseen mental gap between ‘they‘ and the dead man. The latter so desperate but the former still live in their shell of deceiving, unwilling to face the real reason of the death of the dead man.
Why did Stevie Smith use different points of view in this poem to indicate the topic?
In order to make readers better understand the difference between the dead man and ‘they’, Smith wrote in different points of view to offer us convenience to realize the different tones of the characters.
Why did people think the dead man’s heart give way because it must have been too cold?
In my opinion, because people in the poem are too innocent, or even more, too reluctant to accept the fact that the dead man should die such a hopeless death due to their ignorance. Maybe the awaking inner conscience of the people had somehow troubles them, so they chose to keep oblivious to his death.
What’s the significance of the dead man’s speech while he said, ”oh, no no no, it was too cold always.”
In my opinion, the dead man uttered these words out of a hopeless heart that deeply overwhelmed by the coldness of people, of this world. And that was also the main reason why he committed suiside.
What’s the significance when the dead man said that he was much too far out of his life?
Maybe it implicated that the dead man had so much pain to bear that always made him suffocate.
Conclusion: The main purpose of this poem might used to indicate the gap between a hopeless heart, which leads to the suicidal movement of its owner. And we also can tell form the poem that how do average people react to this tragedy in our society—often cold and oblivious. Unlike other poets, Smith always chose over topics to reveal readers a cruel miserable world. And also in this poem, Smith didn’t encourage us to see the positive side of people, instead, she gave us dangerous changes to explore the dark side of humanity.
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