Not Waving but Drowning

“Nobody heard him, the dead man,
But still he lay moaning:
I was much further out than you thought
And not waving but drowning.”

The first stanza which is a quatrain describes a man dying. “I was much further out than you thought” No one can feel or gauge how depressed someone truly feels. Nobody can hear the man’s moaning, because it is in the center of his soul. Waving is a happy action that welcomes and shares joy. While drowning is the same motion but filled with panic and desperation. While the man may look like he’s happy and waving but he is drowning and splashing.

“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.”

The second stanza is also a quatrain. Larking is having harmless fun and pulling pranks. When people commit suicide we always deny it clamming they were so happy and larking that suicide can’t be an option. We think they must have made an accident maybe the cold froze their heart.

“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.”

The last stanza is also a quatrain. In this stanza the possibility of suicide is excepted because it was always cold. She realizes she was too far out to see his depression and waved back at him while he was drowning.