#steviesmith

[a-terrible-conversationalist]

Make Sunday Portraits

‘I was much too far out all my life   And not waving but drowning’

Stevie Smith

[daquisto]

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 And now he’s dead It must have been too cold for him his heart gave way,   They said. 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. - Stevie Smith

[cw21dlr]

Jackie with daughter, Caroline, and Stevie Smith.

[cw21dlr]

Joe Kennedy looks on as his grandchildren, Caroline Kennedy and Stevie Smith, play on the White House lawn, 1961.

[cw21dlr]

Jean Kennedy Smith with her boys William Kennedy Smith (left) and Stephen Smith Jr.

[itsbluebirdthings]

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

And now he’s dead

It must have been too cold for him his heart gave way,

They said.

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.

[bedbusbath]

NOT WAVING BUT DROWNING // Stevie Smith

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 And now he's dead It must have been too cold for him his heart gave way, They said.

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.

[black-rose-daemon]

Stevie Smith - Not Waving but Drowning (British Poetry since 1945, Penguin Books, 1970)

One of her most famous poems, Stevie Smith’s Not Waving but Drowning recounts a drowing man’s gesture for help which is mistaken for waving, reflecting society’s indifferent attitutde to victims.