Modern Poem: Stevie Smith’s “Not Waving, but Drowning”, Essay Example

Poems are basic literary expressions noted to have been created ever since the time humans were given the chance to make use of literary tools to identify with their emotions. Nevertheless, each era, like other forms of art and paintings, there is a primary characteristic that identifies well with the makeup of each poem and how they are created by the poet. As for the poem Not Waving but Drowning by Stevie Smith, the concentration was focused on the concept of expressionism rather than in form, rhythm and the technical form of determining the line count of each stanza.

Nineteenth century poems are considered as important presentations of a controlled form of poem-writing. Poets during the time were concerned on how their words flow, how the blending works and how good each line sounded after another. The correlation of ideas is considered as one of the most important features of 19^th century poems in par with the identification of how each word is counted for its rhythmic sound so that it fits the whole artistic form of determining the meaning of the poem itself.

On the other hand, 20^th century poems are more modern in terms of form, expression and freedom. The poem y Stevie Smith presents a freer form of word identification based on the emotions of the poet and not that of the form itself. As Stevie puts on a symbolical representation of the dead man and the way he still moans imposes a sense of allegory on the poem, and yet it gives out so much of how the poet was feeling at the time he was writing it. Instead of going through limitations, the poet also carried on to embrace the concept of freedom that is provided for [especially in terms of determining the concept of expressionism; which is highly valued in modern poetic creations]. Artistic as it is, this particular form of poem creates a perfect picture on how modern descriptive poems are able to make a connection towards a more determinable condition of development; one that intends to mandate the emotions of the poet as the focus of each line and presentation