Imagery and Poetic Language in the Poem: Smith, "Not Waving but Drowning"
Choose a poem from the assigned readings listed below, and identify some of the key imagery or other kinds of poetic language used in the poem, which you believe are vital to understanding it. Here are some possible approaches:
Provide a detailed discussion of how the images function in the poem.
Do the images work together to form a coherent pattern?
What ideas or feelings are conveyed by the images or figurative language?
How do the images contribute to the overall meaning of the poem?
Our course eBook (Portable Literature) should be your only source. Do not use outside sources.
Title your discussion response with the poem’s title. This will help other students see which poems have been discussed. Once a poem has been discussed twice, please do not choose it for analysis.
Read the following poems and choose one to discuss:
Alacor, "'Mexican' Is Not a Noun"
Alvarez, “Dusting”
Bradstreet, “To My Dear and Loving Husband”
Browning, “How Do I Love Thee”
Burns, “Oh, My Love is Like a Red, Red Rose”
Cummings, “Buffalo Bill”
Cummings, “Next to of Course God America I”
Cummings, “Since Feeling is First”
Dunbar, “We Wear the Mask”
Espada, "My Father as a Guitar"
Hayden, “Those Winter Sundays”
Heaney, “Digging”
Heaney, “Mid-Term Break”
Herrick, “To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time”
Hopkins, “Spring and Fall”
Jarrell, “The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner”
Komunyakaa, “Facing It”
MacLeish, “Ars Poetica”
Marlowe, “The Passionate Shepherd to His Love”
McKay, “The White City”
Pastan, “Ethics”
Plath, “Daddy”
Pound, “The River-Merchant’s Wife: A Letter”
Randall, “Ballad of Birmingham”
Rich, "Living in Sin"
Robinson, “Miniver Cheevy”
Roethke, “My Papa’s Waltz”
Shakespeare, “Let Me Not to the Marriage of True Minds”
Shakespeare, “My Mistress’ Eyes Are Nothing Like the Sun”
Shakespeare, “Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer’s Day?”
Smith, "Not Waving but Drowning"
Stevens, "Anecdote of the Jar"
Stevens, "The Snow Man"
Yeats, "The Second Coming
Yeats, "When You Are Old"
Tips
Remember to provide evidence for your claims in the form of quoted passages from the poem. Quotations, paraphrases, and summaries should be cited according to APA rules of style, including in-text and reference citations. Quoted material should not exceed 25% of the document.
Smith, "Not Waving but Drowning"
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Smith, "Not Waving but Drowning"
In Stevie Smith's poem "Not Waving but Drowning," the use of imagery and figurative language serves to convey the themes of misunderstood suffering and isolation. Through a careful examination of the key elements within the poem, it becomes evident how these images work together to form a coherent pattern, conveying complex ideas and emotions.
One of the central and powerful metaphors in the poem is the image of drowning. This metaphor operates on multiple levels, symbolizing not only the literal struggle for life but also the deeper emotional and psychological struggles experienced by the speaker. The