Not Waving But Drowning

Literature that foreshadows a bleak future for a character often gives off a desperate and/or dreadful feel. From the title alone the reader can see that that "Not Waving But Drowning" by Stevie Smith will be an eerie poem with the mood of despair, because the title suggests that the speaker of the poem is foreshadowing someones death. In the poem the author writes "Oh no no no, It was too cold always, (Still the dead one lay moaning), I was much too far out all my life, Not waving but drowning" (515). This gives off a tone of despair because the speaker of the poem seems to have lost all hope that anyone would come and save the drowning man, or that the drowning man will stay alive. The speaker predicts the worst for the drowning man and blames it on people who are cold and not caring enough to save him which gives the poem an eerie feel.