Powerful Language and Style Alaz 10th Grade

Specific sharp phrases, simple yet elegant, are what make up Stevie Smith’s “Not Waving but Drowning”. However, this austere selection of phrases is what serves the most powerful and sensual shot of the sorrowful themes and emotions, that Smith evokes, to the readers’ hearts.

Smith presents a daunting picture, making avid use of refrain in her poem, not only to emphasize prominent motifs, but also to convey to the readers how important it is to delve deeper into the lives and hardships of people in society. The hallmark refrain of the poem’s title, “not waving but drowning” is a desperate cry for help by “the dead man” that echoes throughout the poem. It haunts the readers, evoking a feeling of guilt, of how the hardships of people in society are overlooked due to the indifference others show towards them. Although people may seem to “always” be “larking,” it does not imply that they are void of an internal, hidden conflict that in the end results in “drowning” them. This deserve a second thought, quite like the refrains in the poem. This disturbing image is aptly expressed in the laconic and solemn language of the poem.

The discrepancy in the lengths of the lines of the poem’s quatrains presents a powerful symbolism that...