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Once as some Israelites were burying a man, suddenly they saw a group of Moabites coming. The Israelites threw the dead man into Elisha’s grave. When the man touched Elisha’s bones, the man came back to life and stood on his feet.
This poem celebrates the life of the dead man as much as it does the legacy of his loving family. “When these graven lines you see, Traveller, do not pity me;
Nobody heard him, the dead man, But still he lay moaning: I was much further out than you thought And not waving but drowning. Poor chap, he always loved larking larking Playing tricks, kidding, fooling around.
- Summary
- Structure and Form
- Analysis, Stanza-By-Stanza
‘Not Waving but Drowning’ by Stevie Smith(Bio | Poems)describes the emotional situation of a speaker whose true tribulations go unnoticed by all those around him. The poem begins with the speaker stating that there is a dead man who is not really dead. He is not dead in that his story has more to offer to the world. His death came at the hands of a...
‘Not Waving but Drowning’ by Stevie Smith(Bio | Poems) is a three-stanza poem that follows a rhyme scheme that slightly deviates as the poem progresses. In the first stanza, the lines rhyme, ABCB, the second, DEFE, and the third, GBHB. The “B” line words are all unified by a “-ing” end rhyme. This is not the only way in which they are related thoug...
Stanza One
The speaker begins the poem, ‘Not Waving but Drowning’with a line that is meant to hook a reader and convince them to continue through the short stanzas. Smith writes, “Nobody heard him, the dead man.” This is a phrase that, when read literally, seems obvious. Of course, a reader might think, one is unable to hear a dead person. However, in the case of this poem, there are other factors at work. The muteness of the person is not what is really at stake. The poet continues on, and throughout t...
Stanza Two
The second stanza continues the narrative of the woman in the sea and the man who has already died and washed up on the beach. This stanza is told from the perspectiveof the onlookers but relayed from the speaker’s perspective. She is able to hear their words and relays them back in a way that shows an underlying apathy and distaste for the dead. The people on the beach do not do much more than pity the dead man. They call him, “Poor chap,” and are able to remember a very general fact about h...
Stanza Three
In the final four lines of the poem, the speaker’s emotions begin to come through. She is re-enacting what she believes the dead man must have been thinking as he died, and in turn, what she is thinking now. The speaker is fretting over the situation that she is in, and wishing that somehow she had managed to find a way to make those around her understand what she is/was going through. She states that not only is the water, or this day, too cold, but it “was too cold always.” Her life, her em...
- Female
- October 9, 1995
- Poetry Analyst And Editor
New International Version. Once while some Israelites were burying a man, suddenly they saw a band of raiders; so they threw the man’s body into Elisha’s tomb. When the body touched Elisha’s bones, the man came to life and stood up on his feet. New Living Translation.
No dead person had become alive again since the time of Elisha, 900 years before (2 Kings 4:34-35). But Jesus was able to do this miracle . And he did not even say a prayer!
People also ask
How did the dead man come back to life?
What did the Lord Say to the Dead Man?
What did Jesus say to the Dead Man?
Did anyone hear the Dead Man?
What happened when they buried a man?
What do the people on the beach say about the Dead Man?
The dead man was a widow’s only child. A large crowd from the city was with her. 13 When the Lord saw her, he felt sorry for her. He said to her, “Don’t cry.” 14 He went up to the open coffin, took hold of it, and the men who were carrying it stopped.
