Post by jenn823 on Aug 1, 2023 18:18:36 GMT -5
Meaning Behind The Sound of Silence
"Hello darkness, my old friend
I've come to talk with you again
Because a vision softly creeping
Left its seeds while I was sleeping
And the vision that was planted in my brain
Still remains
Within the sound of silence"
•
Hello depression/old struggle. The song refers to a struggle he once faced, and here he comes to a realization that an old issue he struggled with affects other people.
I believe it does have to do with how we communicate with one another, but I believe there are specific clues that lead to a more full picture and understanding of the songs meaning.
The song suggests this realization he has of his struggle manifesting in others comes to him while he is “sleeping”. It’s hard to tell if this is a literal or metaphorical sleep. I tend to think it is metaphorical. I believe the narrator here found a real connection with another person. A real relationship based on love. Don’t know if it was a break-up that caused these thoughts to come on again, but he comes to a realization about his past and I think he makes a rejection of reliving his past. I’ll dig into this with more detail.
•
"In restless dreams I walked alone
Narrow streets of cobblestone
‘Neath the halo of a streetlamp
I turned my collar to the cold and damp
When my eyes were stabbed by the flash of a neon light
That split the night
And touched the sound of silence"
•
Narrow streets suggest back alleys to me. He turns his collar to the cold, damp alleyway, because he is far removed from that lifestyle now, but what really attracted him in the past catches his eye. A neon light. A bar, a trashy hotel, or both.
•
"And in the naked light I saw
Ten thousand people, maybe more
People talking without speaking
People hearing without listening
People writing songs that voices never share
No one dare
Disturb the sound of silence"
•
Here, he realizes there are 10,000 or more people in the city, going in to bars, not really connecting with others. Each of them has a real song that is beautiful and their loneliness and their struggle is real, but people in these places never put that out there. They are false about it. And if you were to “dare disturb the sound of silence” by expressing your true feelings of looking for love or companionship, you’d only be met with rejection. Alternatively, the songs that are being written may be so dark and sad, comprised of very shameful and regretted actions, that no one wants to share them.
•
“Fools” said I,“You do not know
Silence like a cancer grows
Hear my words that I might teach you
Take my arms that I might reach you”
But my words like silent raindrops fell
And echoed in the wells of silence"
•
Here the narrator laments and (shouts out to them if in a dream) that the silence between them grows like a cancer, ultimately only leading to deeper and darker feelings of loneliness. The longer these people continue to pursue relationships simply for sex or other selfish purposes, the worse things will become for them. But, the narrator can’t stop them.
•
"And the people bowed and prayed
To the neon god they made
And the sign flashed out its warning
In the words that it was forming
And the sign said “The words of the prophets
Are written on the subway walls
And tenement halls
And whispered in the sounds of silence”
•
Sacrilegiously, the people have made a god out of bars and hotels, or more specifically, drugs, alcohol, and sex. And the sign flashed its warning “The words of the prophets are written on the subway walls and tenement halls”. The words of those who have gone before you are written in graffiti in slummy places. I would say most graffiti is sexual in nature, but I would also say it has connation in violence and despair.
As more of a reflection, I think it states that people let loneliness and sexual desire push them into a spiraling process that is self-destructive and depressing. I think the narrator realizes, after a break-up from a serious relationship, that though there is some temptation to be pulled back into those dark places, he may even have been seeking it out at first, that he resents that past and he laments that he cannot save those experiencing that situation now.
www.chordie.com/songbook.php
"Hello darkness, my old friend
I've come to talk with you again
Because a vision softly creeping
Left its seeds while I was sleeping
And the vision that was planted in my brain
Still remains
Within the sound of silence"
•
Hello depression/old struggle. The song refers to a struggle he once faced, and here he comes to a realization that an old issue he struggled with affects other people.
I believe it does have to do with how we communicate with one another, but I believe there are specific clues that lead to a more full picture and understanding of the songs meaning.
The song suggests this realization he has of his struggle manifesting in others comes to him while he is “sleeping”. It’s hard to tell if this is a literal or metaphorical sleep. I tend to think it is metaphorical. I believe the narrator here found a real connection with another person. A real relationship based on love. Don’t know if it was a break-up that caused these thoughts to come on again, but he comes to a realization about his past and I think he makes a rejection of reliving his past. I’ll dig into this with more detail.
•
"In restless dreams I walked alone
Narrow streets of cobblestone
‘Neath the halo of a streetlamp
I turned my collar to the cold and damp
When my eyes were stabbed by the flash of a neon light
That split the night
And touched the sound of silence"
•
Narrow streets suggest back alleys to me. He turns his collar to the cold, damp alleyway, because he is far removed from that lifestyle now, but what really attracted him in the past catches his eye. A neon light. A bar, a trashy hotel, or both.
•
"And in the naked light I saw
Ten thousand people, maybe more
People talking without speaking
People hearing without listening
People writing songs that voices never share
No one dare
Disturb the sound of silence"
•
Here, he realizes there are 10,000 or more people in the city, going in to bars, not really connecting with others. Each of them has a real song that is beautiful and their loneliness and their struggle is real, but people in these places never put that out there. They are false about it. And if you were to “dare disturb the sound of silence” by expressing your true feelings of looking for love or companionship, you’d only be met with rejection. Alternatively, the songs that are being written may be so dark and sad, comprised of very shameful and regretted actions, that no one wants to share them.
•
“Fools” said I,“You do not know
Silence like a cancer grows
Hear my words that I might teach you
Take my arms that I might reach you”
But my words like silent raindrops fell
And echoed in the wells of silence"
•
Here the narrator laments and (shouts out to them if in a dream) that the silence between them grows like a cancer, ultimately only leading to deeper and darker feelings of loneliness. The longer these people continue to pursue relationships simply for sex or other selfish purposes, the worse things will become for them. But, the narrator can’t stop them.
•
"And the people bowed and prayed
To the neon god they made
And the sign flashed out its warning
In the words that it was forming
And the sign said “The words of the prophets
Are written on the subway walls
And tenement halls
And whispered in the sounds of silence”
•
Sacrilegiously, the people have made a god out of bars and hotels, or more specifically, drugs, alcohol, and sex. And the sign flashed its warning “The words of the prophets are written on the subway walls and tenement halls”. The words of those who have gone before you are written in graffiti in slummy places. I would say most graffiti is sexual in nature, but I would also say it has connation in violence and despair.
As more of a reflection, I think it states that people let loneliness and sexual desire push them into a spiraling process that is self-destructive and depressing. I think the narrator realizes, after a break-up from a serious relationship, that though there is some temptation to be pulled back into those dark places, he may even have been seeking it out at first, that he resents that past and he laments that he cannot save those experiencing that situation now.
www.chordie.com/songbook.php
