Preview

Literary Analysis Of Not Waving But Drowning By Stevie Smith

Better Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1037 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Literary Analysis Of Not Waving But Drowning By Stevie Smith
Exercise 3:
She wants the party to be a success, she thinks the weather is ideal, the roses are everywhere in the garden, she thinks that she could arrange this party better than anybody else and she talks to Kitty on the telephone, Kitty wants to come for lunch but she warns her that it would only be a scratch meal from the left overs.
When she sees the flowers she thinks there has been a mistake, but at then her mother joins them and tells Laura that she was the one who ordered them she says that for once in her life she will have enough canna lilies and the party is a good excuse for it, she is a greedy woman who wants to show off.
I don’t think they need so many flowers because the party will take place in the garden, there are already
…show more content…
The society in which he lives is ignorant because they thought that the dead man was a happy person this is shown by ‘poor chap, he always loved larking’ but instead he was depressed, which is expressed by ‘I was much too far out all my life’ and ‘it was too cold always. The society is also selfish because they are people seeing the dead man drowning, but instead they chose to see him as if he were waving at them, which is illustrated by ‘not waving but drowning’ and as drowning in this poem is a metaphor for depression, it means that the people that he was depressed but did not do anything to help the dead man instead they just pretended he was happy which is illustrated by ‘I was much further out than you thought […] I was much too far out all my life and not waving but …show more content…
This is shown especially with the repetition of these lines ‘do not go gentle into that good night’ and ‘Rage, rage against the dying of the light’. He is desperately telling his father to not succumb to death gently, he tells him to fight against it, to rage against it. 6) Ted Hughes ‘The Thought-Fox’ uses strongly contrasting colour imagery. The poet uses feelings, senses and sounds to describe the environment the poem takes place which is illustrated by ‘I imagine this midnight moment’s forest’ or again by ‘I see no star’. We can feel the atmosphere vividly while reading the poem and it is also very mysterious when we read the lines ‘something else is alive’ and ‘something more near’ we sense that something could be dangerous and we feel it

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Better Essays

    “Floating” by Karen Brennan is a story about a woman who believes she can float or levitate. The authors target audience is people that have had depressing things occur in their lifetime, or even more specifically, women that have gone through miscarriages. The story is told through the perspective of a woman and I think that the author did this to show that if guilt and pain eat at a person this is what can happen. The author uses symbolism to get her point across. The story is told in the first person and no names mentioned in the story because it makes it more relatable to other people. The author portrays a woman who was pregnant, had a miscarriage and is depressed; she is also delusional and believes her baby is still alive and is her little secret, and lastly on some deep level she knows her baby is dead and feels a tremendous amount of guilt. The author shows that the miscarriage can be a metaphor for any situation in life: you lose something, or fail at something you cannot just give up, let the sadness overcome you, become delusional, or keep feeling guilty, one has to be able to move on and be happy, and live your life.…

    • 1799 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Gabriel Garcia Marquez uses fake flowers in order to portray the expectations of women in an old Columbian society. He does this in order to help the reader to really understand the culture and ethnic background.…

    • 527 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Without a doubt there aren’t just any ordinary roses. People come from everywhere to smell the fragrance of these lovely roses. She is often asked to give away her beloved plants, but she refuses to. They’re special to her. Also they were grown in and have never left the town she lives in.…

    • 398 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    He reveals the suffering, anger and violence he encountered while he watched his loved ones,…

    • 395 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    “Do not go gentle into that good night” expresses the necessity and inevitability of death, encouraging the old to rebel against their fate. The poem suggests we should leave this world kicking and screaming, holding on to life with all we’ve got. “Rage, rage against the dying of the light” the tone is adamant and there’s also a sense of urgency there. The speaker demands that old men…

    • 914 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    She did this first by refusing his offer of love and then by delivering drugs to him that he uses to commit suicide. She has betrayed the children she teaches, even though she tries to love and take pleasure in them, they "remain strangers to her." More importantly, perhaps, she betrays herself by rejecting "knowledge and kinship in one monotonous word. No. No. No," and by disguising her sexual coldness as earnest revolutionary idealism. Laura is afraid and unable to live life; she is "not at home in the world." It finally makes her, a "cannibal" of others, and a "murderer" of herself. Laura's revolutionary activity is unfulfilling. She takes messages to and from people living in dark alleys, attends fruitless union meetings, and ferries food, cigarettes, and narcotics to sad, imprisoned men. She also "borrows money from the Roumanian agitator to give to his bitter enemy the Polish agitator." When she eats the "warm, bleeding flowers" of the Judas tree in her nightmare vision, she symbolically participates in an act of betrayal. Laura lives as if she is dead. Her ideals, however, remain intact, though she must sometimes struggle to maintain them. Her own taste requires fine handmade lace, a revolutionary heresy. She is still significantly engaged by the faith of her childhood. Although she is still caught between her revolutionary sympathies and the sympathies of her own past. She finds the experience visiting the…

    • 650 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Mckay And Antigone

    • 575 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The narrator proposes “Beyond this place of wrath and tears, looms but the horror of the shade, and yet the menace of the years finds, and shall find me unafraid.” This means that even though he is hurting, he will not be afraid to die. Although he has a bunch of tears, he will fight through the pain. He is not afraid to go through the consequence of being afraid and sick. In lines 6 through 16, it shows that he is the master of his fate and the captain of his soul. This means he controls his every movement no matter how big or small the problems are. He is not afraid of dying because he knows eventually he will…

    • 575 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Ted Hughes believed that nature is far more violent and dangerous than man realises. How did he communicate this message in the poem?…

    • 398 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In this poem, the poet used a variety of sound devices and figurative language. He writes, “Bright like a sun--/ My dream” (1.5-6) to create an image of the freedom he was looking for, which is also an example of comparing unlike things using “like” or “as”—a simile. Hughes kept using “sun”, “dream”, and “wall” to emphasize the message over and over again. By using repetition, the image he wanted to create is even more vivid: He wanted to find the sun, which represents the freedom he was seeking for, but was blocked by the wall--the reality that created the darkness and the shadow.…

    • 536 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    the garden party

    • 905 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Set in colonial New Zealand, "The Garden Party" falls into two clearly differentiated parts. Most of the story concerns the preparations and aftermath of a garden party, ostensibly organized by Laura, Meg, and Jose, the daughters of the privileged Sheridan family. As dawn breaks, Laura goes into the Sheridan's exquisite garden to inspect the proposed site for the marquee. Her encounter with three workers hired to raise the tent is awkward and confused, as she finds herself torn between snobbery and her developing sense of moral responsibility. Back at the house preparations continue: a florist delivers several trays of pink lilies; Mrs. Sheridan fusses over the sandwiches; and Meg rehearses a comically inappropriate song. A…

    • 905 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Important Thing

    • 310 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Claudia is a very kind girl. During her father's birthday party, Claudia wears her green pyjamas given by her father's girlfriend, Stella. She decides to do this because she feels that the guests in the party are very rude when they refuse to talk to Stella. They act like Stella is invisible and Claudia feels angry because Stella is actually a very nice person.…

    • 310 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Dylan Thomas writes in the last two lines of the Villanelle ‘Do not go gentle into that good night. Rage, rage against the dying of the light.’ This negative imperative urges his farther to fight against death. Thomas uses euphemism ‘the dying of the light’ to represent a positive spin on a negative word, as this is the last line of the villanelle the reader is left with positive thoughts, which is a contrast to the negative imperative ‘Do not go gentle into that good night’ which is repeated throughout the poem, The anger is caused by the unconditional love Thomas has for his farther. The want for his farther to fight death is a contrast to Remember after the Volta as Thomas has no awareness of his farther needs, he is just thinking about what he wants. The son wants his farther to deny death, this is similar to A mother in a Refugee Camp where the mother denies the illness or the coming of death of her child when the mother still carries on combing his hair, even when he is…

    • 2071 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Florist as a Career

    • 715 Words
    • 3 Pages

    ‘A thing of beauty is joy forever.’ One of them is flowers. The sweet smell of flowers enhances the aura and ambience of the celebration. Flowers are one of the most important parts of decoration for any occasion. They add a natural sweetness to the whole mood of celebration. So, how about choosing a career that allows you to spend all of your time with the lovely flowers!! Being a florist proves to be a wonderful career option for people who love to be around nature. It feels great to see multiple mixed emotions on the face of people who visit you to buy flowers for different occasions- be it birth, wedding or death. All you need is perfectness of creative imagination to mould the requirement of the occasion to a unique, beautiful floral pattern.…

    • 715 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    "The Garden Party", written by Katherine Mansfield, is the story of an upper-class British family who is throwing a party for friends. It is a warm, summer day while the family makes preparations, by cooking food and setting up a location for the marquee and band. While preparing, the family hears about a tragic accident which occurred in the poor part of the neighbourhood, at the bottom of the hill. A young man was thrown from a horse, and killed, leaving behind his wife and five children. The one daughter, Laura, is upset about the news and wants to cancel the entire party. Her family thinks she is overreacting, and doesn't believe the death should affect them because their house is at the top of the hill and is separated from the lower-class families. Instead Laura's mother suggests that they provide a basket of left-over food to the the family, as a way to show their condolences. Laura fills the basket with food, and begins to carry it down toward the other houses. She felt uncomfortable walking down the road because the atmosphere was dark and quiet, and Laura stood out compared to everyone else. The house she approach had a lot of people gathered outside, and when she knocked, a women opened the door and invited her in. She was taken directly to the body of the young man, which looked as if it was peacefully sleeping. It made her feel happy and sad at the same time; it gave her a new appreciation of life. She quickly left the house, and walked back up to hers, where she met up with her brother. The two of them then walked…

    • 291 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Ted Hughes (1930-1998) was one of the major poets of the 20th century and the most influential English poet of the post World War II. His writing began as a reaction to the Movement poetry of the 1950s. His poetry embraces the violent life of nature particularly as exemplified by animals and birds. It’s not really violence the Ted Hughes celebrates in his poetry, he celebrates an energy that too strong for death. Ted considers poetry as a means for reintroducing the community to its origin or sources of the energy of renewal.…

    • 293 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays