The Sound of Silence | Paul Simon | Summary | Generations | Grade XII
Short summary:
'The
Sound of Silence' brings to mind Moses walking down Mt.
Summary
In
the poem, the speaker woke up in the dark night and wanted to tell somebody
about his dream. He does not talk to a friend, but in the darkness of the room
where he is writing. In fact, the vision he refers to seems like one of those
dreams that you cannot tell anyone but yourself. A dream that is fixed in the
mind and that awakening does not make you forget. In this poem silence is
the taboo, what he wants to speak about he cannot.
In
his restless dreams he walked alone in the pebbles narrow streets under the
light of a street lamp. When he turned his collar, a flash of neon light astonish
him. The light split the night and explains the meaning of silence. In the
light he saw more than ten thousand people. They were talking without speaking,
hearing without listening and writing songs that voices never share. Still, no
one had the daring to break the silence.
The
speaker in the dream told the people fools and said silence grows like a
cancer. He requested them not to ignore his advice and to hold his arms, but
his words were like silent raindrops and had no effect on them.
Instead
of listening to the speaker, the people were worshipping the neon God which
they made themselves. The neon light whispered that they had to follow the
commands of the prophets, which painted on the large walls.
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