'Stevie Smith: The poems of Not Waving but Drowning are punctuated everywhere with a strong will to freedom.' Discuss.

Seminar paper from the year 2001 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Literature, grade: 1,3, University of London (English Department), course: Women, Writing and Feminism, language: English, abstract: Introduction

Stevie Smith¿s fifth volume of verse Not Waving but Drowning was published in 1957. Pain, sadness, despair and death are common subjects in these poems and they are all punctuated everywhere by a strong will to freedom. Freedom is the right to live or act without being restricted by anyone or anything; freedom is the state of not being a prisoner or a slave. In her poems, Stevie Smith deals with different kinds of freedom. The will to freedom is not always fulfilled easily or at all. This essay will discuss the reasons for the will of freedom that are presented in certain poems of Not Waving but Drowning, it will deal with the possible fulfilment of freedom and the conditions for it.