In what ways does Stevie Smith make ‘Not Waving But Drowning’ such a

disturbing poem?

Stevie Smith makes the poem disturbing by using the story of someone drowning to delve
into a deeper meaning of the world of mental health issues. The poem begins with,
“Nobody heard him, the dead man”, and this makes the poem disturbing as we know the
man to not be dead. This therefore suggests that he is predetermined to die, perhaps due to
his mental health he is already dead on the inside, and this is shown through the use of the
definite article, which tells us that his future has already been decided. The stanza then
continues with a volta, “But still he lay moaning:”, where the long, elongated vowel draws
out his life, creating an unpleasant feeling, aided by the use of the world “lay”, which could
suggest he is laying in his coffin already, albeit mentally. “I was much further out than you
thought And not waving but drowning”, ends the stanza, and it makes the poem disturbing
by describing how the person was dying on the inside in plain sight of everybody who did
not help him, shown by the accusatory “you”. They were dying by “drowning” in their own
thoughts, something which can often be hard to notice.

Throughout the poem the structure is maintained, which suggests that everyone went on
with their normal life, all whilst this pain is going on inside the narrator’s mind. There are no
anomalies to sentence length, except from the final line of the second stanza, “They said”. It
is monosyllabic and isolated, much like the writer’s life, who finds themself alone and
outcast. It follows on from “It must have been too cold for him his heart gave way”, and
together these create a poorly portrayed idea of what is going on in the narrator’s life. The
second stanza as an entirety is informal, and has a lack of emotion, making it seem as
though all the bystanders to his death were dismissive. This is highlighted in the opening
phrase of, “poor chap, he’d always loved larking”. “Chap” is highly informal, as if you were
chatting with one of your mates, and so shows the distinct lack of care that the narrator
experienced throughout his latter life prior to his passing.

The final stanza begins with, “Oh, no no no, it was too cold always”, and the use of a
talkative slangy manner emphasises once again the informality and lack of care that
outsiders had for the narrator during his life, continuing to make the poem disturbing as no
one was able to identify the issues going on within his mind. The “too cold always” could
refer to either his personality being too cold to attract people to talk to him, hence making
him feel lonely and unwanted, or it could refer to the water being too cold, which would fit
in with his supposed “drowning” upon his passing. The final stanza then continues with,
“(Still the dead one lay moaning)”. The rare use of brackets suggests this is an added detail,
one that few people would pay attention to. Indeed, the narrator is stating that he was
always there, dying in full view of everyone, and yet this lacked recognition. The poem ends
with, “I was much too far out all my life And not waving but drowning”. This line almost
seems like a dig to those who were in his life at the time, as he feels as though they could’ve
become more involved with him. The last phrase is a repetition from earlier, displaying the
emphasis that the narrator has on the “Drowning” in your mental health. Conclusively, “too
far out” makes it seem as though it was too much effort for anyone to help him, making the
poem disturbing as it shows that all of this could be going on without anyone being
knowledgeable of it.