Read the excerpt from "Not Waving but Drowning” by Stevie Smith.Poor chap, he always loved larkingAnd now he’s deadIt 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 lifeAnd not waving but drowning.

The man’s friends think he was simply larking and that the cold caused his death, but his words reveal a deeper, lifelong struggle: “I was much too far out all my life.” The drowning reflects the adversities he faced, which others failed to recognize. So the best choice is “the man’s adversities in life.”

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