Analysis Of Not Waving But Drowning And Not Waving But Drowning

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A Better Understanding of Misunderstanding People suffer in a variety of ways for a little of different reasons. Sometimes this suffering can go unnoticed or be misunderstood, because people don’t see or misinterpret the symptoms of suffering. The poems “Not Waving but Drowning”, by Stevie Smith, and “Richard Cory”, by Edwin Arlington Robinson, explore the idea of misunderstood suffering in very different ways. Although both poems are masterfully crafted, “Not Waving but Drowning” is more effective in its critique of how suffering is misjudged in its usage of structure and speaker as well as its language. Within the aforementioned poems specific linguistic choices were intentionally utilized to make the critique of misinterpreted suffering …show more content…

The sentences used by Smith range from 24-29 words. The sheer length of these sentences is not what makes them so effective. Smith utilizes these long sentences as well as drastic changes in speaker point of view within these long sentences to add an additional layer of confusion for the reader. A reader must first read these lengthy sentences as well as distinguish where the shift between speakers are. This detail adds another layer of complexity and confusion to the pome that highlights how easy it can be to misinterpret the distress of others. Smith presents this story to readers in a way that is anything but straight forward and requires careful reading and consideration to make sense of it. “ Oh, no no no, it was too cold always (Still the dead one lay moaning) I was much too far out all my life and not waving but drowning” (Smith 288 Lines 9-12) is a sentence that is constructed from 29 words and changes its speaker 3 times. The line nine is told from the point of view of a friend or on looker, while line ten is told from the point of view of a narrator, and lines eleven through twelve are said by the dead man. This very convoluted and complex writing style creates even more confusion in

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