Smith, Stevie. "Not Waving but Drowning".

Summary

- a poetic snippet describing the death of a man from the different perspectives of the drowned one and of those discussing his death

- generally people think he drowned as a result of a heart attack caused by the cold weather

- the dead one moans and complaints about his always being misunderstood: it was not the cold x but: he was too far to be heard, more far than people thought, and "not waving but drowning"

Analysis

- free verse, rhymed refrain

- ballad-like: direct speech, the irrational or supernatural in the speech of the dead man, etc.

- sadly contemplates the last tragic misunderstanding between the man and the world which never achieved any understanding of him