SOUNDS OF SILENCE IS ABOUT THE McCARTHY ERA

1
Sounds Of Silence Is About McCarthyism!
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 darkness
Greetings to a period lacking in enlightenment, knowledge, or culture: a dark age in
the history of USA
My old friend
sarcastic: fascism
I've come to talk with you again
I’ve come to express my thoughts or feelings in writing again as was done during
WWII: Voltaire talks about London in this book.

2
Because a vision
The ability or an instance of great perception, esp. of future developments: a man of
vision.
Softly creeping
Developing gradually over a period of time: "a creeping sense of cultural dread"
(Andrew Sullivan).
Left its seeds
Left its source or beginning; a germ: the seed of an idea.
While I was sleeping
While I sleeping - quiet and inactive restfulness, perhaps because I was a kid.
And the vision that was planted in my brain
And the TV program, a vision, television that was PLANTED: A person placed in a
group of people, or Communist cell, to spy on them and influence their behavior. I
LED THREE LIVES about Herbert Philbrick, undercover FBI agent.
Still remains

3
I still remember this program at least a decade later
Within the sound of silence
Within the McCarthy era.
In restless dreams I walked alone
Narrow streets of cobblestone
'Neath the halo of a street lamp
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
In restless dreams I walked alone
In nightmarish visions I faced death as in “you’ll never walk alone.”
In Europe
Narrow streets of cobblestone

4
'Neath the halo of a street lamp
Neath the circular light on a death camp watchtower
I turned my collar
Slang An arrest, as of a Jew by the Nazis
To the cold
Death
And damp
Where I was destined to become a corpse: Damp: Foul or poisonous gas that
sometimes pollutes the air in coal mines.
When my eyes were stabbed
When my idealism, my thoughts, were betrayed, stabbed in the back
By the flash a brief news dispatch or transmission.
Of a neon light
Of the tanks rolling into Hungry and the Freedom Fighters throwing Malenkov
cocktails at them

5
That split the night
Informal to become divided or part company as a result of discord or disagreement:
The Polish and Czech invasion caused a split in the CPUSA.
And touched the sound of silence
And touched off more McCarthyism.
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 dared
Disturb the sound of silence
And in the naked light I saw
I saw people exposed to harm; vulnerable: "naked to mine enemies" (Shakespeare).
As, light attention as in spotlight, was focused on them
Ten thousand people, maybe more
Numerous people being called before HUAC etc Forced to register as foreign agents
under the Smith Act

6
People talking without speaking
People taking the Fifth Amendment
People hearing without listening
Hearing: A session, as of an investigatory committee or a grand jury, at which
testimony is taken from witnesses.
People writing songs that voices never share
The Hollywood blacklist
People writing left wing songs that will never be recorded
and no one dared
Disturb the sound of silence
And everyone was intimidated to speak out against McCarthyism and disturb the
McCarthyites.
"Fools" said I, "You do not know
Silence like a cancer grows
Hear my words that I might teach you

7
Take my arms that I might reach you"
But my words like silent raindrops fell
and echoed in the wells of silence
Fools, said I, you do not know
Silence like a cancer grows
If you don’t speak out against McCarthyism it will only get worse and kill American
democracy.
Hear my words that I might teach you
Literal
Take my arms
An administrative or functional branch, as of an organization, as of the Democratic
Party.
That I might reach you
To succeed in having an effect on: “No one seems able to reach Dylan anymore.”
But my words, like silent raindrops fell
But my words were metaphorical and poetic
And echoed in the wells of silence
Echo: (Poetry) the repetition of certain sounds or syllables in a verse line.
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

8
And the people bowed and prayed
BOW: To cause to acquiesce; submit.
To the neon god they made
Tail Gunner Joe McCarthy whose Army-McCarthy hearings were televised
And the sign flashed out its warning
Flash: A brief news dispatch or transmission.
In the words that it was forming
To develop in the mind; conceive: Her reading led her to form a different opinion.
And the sign said, the words of the prophets
A spokesman for a movement, doctrine, etc
Are written on the subway walls
and tenement halls
Are Leftist posters etc.
And whispered in the sounds of silence