Not Waving, But Drowning [VINYL]

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I’m not that interested in the lives of poets. Lord Byron may have been “mad, bad, and dangerous to know,” but as any product of an MFA program can tell you, a poet’s life is typically short on titillating details. Italian loafers. Yoga classes. Book signings. Yawn. Brand new U.K. gatefold sleeve 180 gram vinyl issue of this truly dope Hip-Hop album from 2019. Including Jordan Rakei, Kiko Bun, Rebel Kleff, Sampha & Jean Coyle-Larner. Contemporary Literary Criticism, Gale, Volume 3, 1975, Volume 8, 1980, Volume 25, 1983, Volume 44, 1987. Loyle is not bitter with people who have let him down, or a society that lets so many down, but the combination of anger and love he has gives his voice the perfect blend of strength and vulnerability. This might be a coming of age album, but it’s also a coming of ageless album. Loyle’s 2019 Spring tour – which includes London’s Roundhouse – sold out within 20 minutes of being on sale. Loyle has also just been announced for this year’s Glastonbury Festival, where he’ll be performing on The Other stage.

De Britse rapper/dichter Loyle Carner maakt liedjes over familie, wereldzaken en het echte leven. Al het materialistische laat hij liever weg in zijn liedjes. Op zijn nieuwe album ‘Not Waving, But Drowning’ horen we day Loyle Carner nog steeds verhalen kan vertellen met de flow van een rapper en de gevoeligheid van een dichter. Het album is vernoemd naar een gedicht van zijn grootvader en beslaat onderwerpen zoA Very Pleasant Evening with Stevie Smith: Selected Short Prose, New Directions (New York, NY), 1995. The first stanza tells us that nobody heard the drowning man (his dying moans being retrospectively recounted: he is now ‘the dead man’), yet he continued to cry for help and wave his arms, his flailing mistaken for friendly waving. The first two lines are spoken by some impersonal narrator; the last two lines by the dead man himself. This is a voice from the dead: ‘I was much further out’, not ‘I am’. He is already a goner. Raised in the Anglican Church, Smith borrowed the meter of its hymns, but the beat often fell away to accommodate the prissy registers of middle-class speech, as in “This Is Disgraceful and Abominable”: Of all the disgraceful and abominable things

Our full range of studio equipment from all the leading equipment and software brands. Guaranteed fast delivery and low prices. An album like this is hard to find. It is for those who like their Hip Hop to have soul, and their soul to have spirit. This is because it works on so many levels, but it is reflecting the personality of its creator. There are a host of collaborators here, Jorja Smith, Rebel Kleff, Kiko Bun, Kwes, Jordan Rakei, Sampha, Tom Misch and more, but none are overpowering. They blend righteously into place. The voice in this second stanza (‘Poor chap…’) may be the narrator who began the poem, or it may be the voice of the crowd who witnessed the man’s death but failed to realise he was in trouble. Before teaching, read the poem guide to “Not Waving but Drowning.” Have students think-pair-share a time when things went wrong because their words or gestures were misunderstood by others. Who is the speaker of the poem? Who does the speaker align himself or herself with—the drowned man or the gathered crowd?

Contributors

Speaking of “serious,” “Not Waving but Drowning” is Smith’s most famous poem. This twelve-line punch to the gut is one of her most sober and plainly nihilistic pieces. What is the effect of repetition in the poem? By altering the first stanza’s final phrase, what does Smith suggest about the life of the drowned man?