Black Humor Through Poetry in Stevie Smiths Not Waving...

Black Humor Through Poetry in Stevie Smiths Not Waving But Drowning In the poetry of Margaret â€Å"Stevie† Smith (1902-1971), life and death are constantly being juxtaposed. For Smith, life was usually a painful or tedious experience and death a blessed escape from its misery and futility. Having had a religious upbringing, she is also much preoccupied with God, but cannot accept traditional Christian teaching about redemption and heaven. Death is seen as an end, rather than a beginning and a relief, instead of a gateway to a reward. In â€Å"Not Waving but Drowning†, Smith’s philosophy of life as a pointless and sad experience for many people, is focused on the event of a drowning man. In the style of the poem, she writes†¦show more content†¦An implication of an ironic circumstance suggests that the â€Å"dead man . . . lay moaning:† possibly expressing his thoughts even after his death (line 1-2). Also note that Smith uses an imperfect rhyme scheme on the even numbered lines. An imperfect rhyme scheme occurs when the final consonant sounds in two words are the same but the vowel sounds are different. She carefully chooses the words â€Å"moaning† and â€Å"drowning† in line 2 and 4, â€Å"dead† and â€Å"said† in line 6 and 8, and â€Å"moaning† and drowning† in lines 10 and 12. I believe this simple rhyme scheme produces an even flowing poem that effectively expresses characteristics of her bluntness on life and death. The utilization of persona that the poet assumes is an extension of her feelings for life. She is very cynical towards life in general and has an uncanny humor about the invitation of death. â€Å"The deceased persona’s indignation at being misunderstood is grotesquely as well as pathetically amusing† (Sternlicht 64). In line 5 â€Å"loved larking† or fooling around explains the man’s outlook on life. This use of alliteration  œ the repetition of consonant sounds in consecutive or neighboring words, conveys how he always fooled around which was his way of crying out for help, and instead used this method to mask his problems by having a reputation of â€Å"larking†. Obviously â€Å"[i]t must have been too cold for him his heart gave way,† implies that the cold is what killed the man but not their