An analysis is made of hydrodynamic forces acting horizontally on a two-dimensional cylinder, when it is exposed to incident waves and consequently undergoes a swaying motion in shallow water. Applying the method of matched asymptotic expansions the added mass, wave damping and the wave exciting force are obtained in terms of the difference in potential across the cylinder in a simple manner. The potential jump is related to the so-called blockage coefficient which is determined purely from geometry. It is found that the wave damping coefficient can not exceed the blockage coefficient.