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

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.

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.

—Stevie Smith, Source

For my high school senior AP English class, we were each assigned a poet. The goal was for us to look over their body of work and explicate a certain number of poems, taking a different approach with each. This meant we studied their own lives, historical periods, the work of other contemporaries, the style and structure, etc. My assignment was Stevie Smith.This has stayed with me through the years, and I know that it ranks among my favorite poems I’ve ever read.