Drowning Is Not So Pitiful
Drowning Is Not So Pitiful - meaning Summary
Struggle and Final Surrender
The poem contrasts physical drowning with the psychological tragedy of trying and failing to rise. Dickinson describes repeated efforts to surface that ultimately cease, leaving the person in a place where hope is absent. Even the comforting presence of the Maker is avoided, suggesting resignation or self-exile from consolation. The poem frames defeat as a willful withdrawal from help, emphasizing loss of hope and the finality of surrender.
Read Complete AnalysesDrowning is not so pitiful As the attempt to rise. Three times, ‘t is said, a sinking man Comes up to face the skies, And then declines forever To that abhorred abode Where hope and he part company, For he is grasped of God. The Maker’s cordial visage, However good to see, Is shunned, we must admit it, Like an adversity.
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