I Am a Rock

I am a rock

When reading or listening to poetry, the main objective for me is to feel moved. Happiness, longing, sadness are some of the feelings that can be achieved just by listening to others’ words. It is within these words that creates another world, or separates us from our own. Words all have a certain kind of attachment to them, so if used properly an author can stimulate a reader beyond belief.

Simon and Garfunkel were just those kinds of poets. Their words were able to stimulate an emotion with most of their readers. Simon and Garfunkel are one of my favorite artists, and in my opinion one of the most influential lyricist of their time. In their song, “I am a rock”, they are able to make you feel and question for someone who avoiding emotional attachment, and instead of questioning what it might be like, using their words to but you in their place.

From the first stanza of this song, you get put into a scene. You know almost immediately that it is about someone, and it is the middle of December, but without stating the obvious, it paints a more illustrated picture for you. The first line states, “A winters day, in a deep and dark December” and I could almost immediately feel a cool breeze around me. When I normally think of a winter’s day, I think of people playing in the snow, and having a good time. This may be because I grew up in Southern California where there has been a lack of snow, but in my head, that is what I imagine. Having them state, in a deep and dark December, turns my attitudes to the more pessimistic way of looking at things. The image of children playing in the snow in my head has now turned to cold and dark emptiness. Reinstating my idea of emptiness, the next line follows with the simply statement, “I am alone”. Personally, I hate being alone. So to have the opening words place us in a deep and dark setting, and then state that you are alone, automatically puts me in a negative mindset.

Then to further instate his isolation in the next stanza the narrator admits to being the source of his seclusion. The narrator claims to put walls around him, but then goes into it more to say, “ A fortress deep and mighty”. The adjectives used to exemplify his position are significant. Usually when I hear there is a wall around something, I do not get put off from it. A wall can be easily trespassed, but a fortress deep and mighty, I would not want to mess with that. It also puts a timeline on the narrator for me. A wall is something that can be built during a short period. However, a fortress deep and mighty would take time and effort in creating. Then you find a little more about the reasoning behind the narrator’s choice on isolation stating, “I have no need of friendship, friendship causes pain. Its laughter and its loving I distain”. You then find out that he is isolating himself to avoid friendship, since friendship causes pain. When hearing this I can only validate it off of experience. But the one word that shoots out to me in these lines is distain. Distain is such a harsh word choice, in order to distain something you would have to hate it with all of your heart. I just grow curious to think what would make someone distain something so wonderful as friendship.

The third stanza clarifies again some of the reasons behind the narrators despair. He says, “Don’t talk of love, but I’ve heard the words before” telling us that he had experienced it before. Then goes on to tell us, “It’s sleeping in my memory. I wont disturb the slumber of feelings that have died”. This goes back to giving me a timeline. For something to be sleeping, or dead, must be in remission for a while reminding me that this could of happened a while ago. The narrator then goes to say, “If I never loved, I never would have cried”, this is a universal feeling. I cannot even imagine how many times I have heard, or have questioned myself, is it better to have loved and lost then to not love at all. If you have never loved, you would never have to experience the agony of loss, but