Not Waving but Drowning Not Waving but Drowning "Not Waving but Drowning" is a poem by the British poet Stevie Smith. It was published in 1957 as part of a collection of the same title. The most famous of Smith's poems, it gives an account of a drowned man whose distressed thrashing in the water had been mistaken for waving. The poem was accompanied by one of Smith's drawings, as was common in her work. The poem's personal significance has been the topic of several pieces of literary criticism because Smith was treated for psychological problems. She contemplated suicide at the age of eight
Hand-waving fallacy; the proponent's argument may incidentally be correct despite their failure to properly support it. A tertiary meaning refers to use of poorly-reasoned arguments specifically to impress or persuade. "The New Hacker's Dictionary" (a.k.a. "The Jargon File") observes: The implication that hand-waving is done with the specific intent to mislead has long been attached to the term, due to the use of literal waving of a hand – either natural-looking or showy, but never desperate – by illusionists to distract audiences and misdirect their attention from the mechanisms of the sleight-of-hand, gimmicked props or other trick being used in the