Referat Interpretation of Contemporary Poems of the 1960s

Interpretation of Contemporary Poems of the 1960s

1. Bob Dylan´s "Blowing in the Wind"

1.1. The song's History

The inspiration for this song is believed to have come to Bob Dylan´s mind one afternoon in April 1962 , during a long political discussion with friends . As the conversation petered out in silence , Dylan was suddenly struck by the thought that there were severe problems in the U.S.A. of his time the Western world , respectively.

He had known this for a long time then and expressed his opinion towards the matter of the

civil rights movement both as an artist and as an activist going out on the street . What he suddenly realized , however , was that the general public refused to see what was going wrong.. As he puts it:" The people in power refuse to look at what is happening. And the others , they ride the subways and read the Times , but they don t understand. They don´t know. They don´t even care and that´s the worst of it "¹

This frustration is expressed in his probably best known song " Blowing in the wind". The title already suggests that people do not care to give an answer or a solution to the enormous problems . At the same time , the poem aims at making people open their eyes to the obvious problems of these times such as fully integrating blacks and women into society.

1. Analysis

The poets objective is reflected in the structure of the poem.

The poem consists of three stanzas , each of nine lines . Every stanza is structured the same way : in the first six lines Dylan is asking three rhetorical , almost unanswerable questions . The question phrases always start with the same words " How many " ) , Dylan chose this parallelism as a stylistic device to put all emphasis on the questions asked , for the answer , as it is stated in the last three lines of each stanza , is "...Blowing in the wind" anyway .

Within his stanzas , Bob Dylan moves from the general to the particular . His first stanza begins with a strong opening image of a man walking down a road , which clearly relates to the civil rights marchers. Using the image of a white dove in the second question again reminds the reader of the civil rights movement. The activists were often referred to as doves

, and of course everyone knew that a white dove was and still is a symbol for peace. In Dylan's eyes, people do not care about these symbols .It is not foreseeable when the "dove" and the "man" will eventually reach their aim. The Public did not even see their necessity , as they closed their eyes to the horrible state the world is in . Dylan ,on the other hand, illustrates that he sees no point in fighting and cannot understand , that cannonballs are still flying , that nobody sees a point in banning them .

As the Vietnam War is about to begin , those lines especially refer to the Vietnam War , but not solely , because Vietnam is not explicitly mentioned. This song is vague and all- encompassing and therefore it can be applied to almost any freedom issue ,at any time . Still

, some metaphors and images clearly stem from the s .It is not absolutely necessary, though , to know them to get the message of this song.

Stanza N°2 starts off with the metaphor of a mountain being washed into the sea . Dylan chose this image because it is almost impossible to imagine the time it will take until a mountain will finally be washed into the sea. This mountain is compared to the , in the author's eyes, racist materialist , imperialist and repressive American society . It will take exactly the same time to open society's eyes to liberal ideas as it takes to wash down the mountain. Dylan implicitly wants to encourage the civil rights movement to keep on trying to make the U S.A. a better place to live in , even if it will take an almost unimaginable long time .

As in the first stanza his second and third question are more straightforward than his philosophically disguised questions before. He then moves to the oppression of some people ( " allowed to be free" ) . The following lines connect to his idea that made him write " Blowing in The Wind" : he accuses the general public of turning their heads and pretending not to see what is going wrong .

In the third stanza the author appeals to the reader not to remain in his / her lethargy , but to sharpen his / her senses to the evil of the world . This is emphasized by the application of words relating to our senses look /see ears/ hear and cry hear .

The first question urges the reader to open his eyes in order to perceive his surroundings clearly. He is to open his ears to the cries of the suppressed people and to finally realize that too many have died in vain.

3 Dylan's Appeal to the Reader

Dylan appeals to the reader's common sense by asking these obvious questions. The point Dylan wants to make is that the real problem concerning the above -mentioned questions is not answering them but asking them . Most people , he points out do not care about those problems and do not bother to ask such obvious questions .

Furthermore , the song is validating the concern of the youthful protest movement while absolving them from the obligation to come up with absolute answers to the problems about which they protested.

The main idea of this song is that there are no hard and fast answers , the first obligation is to care. " The way to answer those questions " said Dylan " is by asking them. But lots of people have to first find the wind. ²

1 . Personal View

Personally , I think it is a great song , because , on the one hand it implicitly deals with the topics young revolutionaries liked to hear about ( oppression of blacks , women's role in society ) but on the other hand , because all statements are put generally , it can be applied to any freedom issue at any time.

Although Bob Dylan borrowed the tune from the old folk song " No More Auction Block ³ for this song , " Blowing in The Wind " marked a huge jump in Bob Dylan´s songwriting , because it remains the song with which Dylan s name is most inextricably linked . It safeguarded his reputation as civil rights libertarian through any number of changes in style and attitude.

_{2 Barry Sadler's "Ballad of the Green Beret"}

1. The Song's Background / What is a Green Beret ?

Before taking a look at Barry Sadler´s lyrics it is necessary to explain what exactly is a Green Beret .They are a " breed apart , a cut above the rest , fighters of uncommon mental and physical caliber. Mature , highly skilled , and superbly trained , they are ready to serve anywhere at any time."⁴

They are usually referred to as the absolute elite within the army . Deployed on every continent , operating in remote areas under Spartan conditions , they also often train their allies to defend themselves against tyranny and oppression .

Because President Kennedy felt that since they had a special mission , Special Forces should have something to set them apart from the rest , he authorized the beret as a part of the Special Forces uniform in 1961.The Green Berets also took part in the Vietnam War ⁶

Army Staff Sergeant Barry Saddler helped write " The Ballad of the Green Berets " while recuperating from a leg wound suffered during his service as a medic in the Vietnam War. He later sang the tune on a record that became the nation´s N° 1 hit for five weeks in 19 6 and eventually sold 9 million singles and albums.⁷ It then became a popular anthem for the special forces. Ballad Of the Green Beret was a great inspiration and source of

pride to many Americans serving in an unpopular war.

Analysis

Formally , this text is subdivided into 4 stanzas consisting of four lines and a chorus , which is sung after each paragraph exept for the fourth and fifth paragraph.

In the first stanza , the green berets are described as " fighting soldiers from the sky " (l.1) who do not fear anything , not even facing death , as they are men with a mission . Furthermore , Sadler puts emphasis on the special mental caliber of those men , and highlights their honesty and decisiveness ( "Men who mean just what they say" , " fearless men

The chorus is a very important part of this song as it is repeated twice . We learn about the Special Force's insignia , namely the silver wings upon the soldiers´ chests. Ssgt. Sadler -in the chorus as throughout the song - wants to encourage the members of the Special Forces to take pride in what they are doing . In his eyes these soldiers are worthy being called "America's best"

( l.6 . Only those who prove to live up to the standards the Special Forces request can once wear a Green Beret . Sadler underlines the outstanding requirement standards they have to meet and the tough training the soldiers have to undergo in ll.7/8 : "one hundred men will test today , only three win the green beret".

The extraordinary training will lead them fighting for America , or from Ssgt Sadler's patriotic angle " for

freedom's land ".This statement goes along with the motto of the Special Forces : to free the oppressed .

The third paragraph also mentions the camaraderie between the soldiers , they will fight " hand in hand ".So here another requirement is to be noticed: these soldiers need not only be at 10 % physical fitness but also need to fit in neatly with the rest of the service members .

Men such as the Green Berets will not hesitate to sacrifice their own lives .They make it possible for others to enjoy their personal freedom due to their resentless efforts to fight for " a better day " ( l.11 ) .

Death is seen as the ultimate sacrifice for a man's country. Dying for ideals is described as very heroic. (

"Fearless men ,jump and die

Sadler uses many repetitions throughout his song. What struck me most was the repetition of the word " die " which describes Sadler's opinion on death in the battlefield. The martyr-motif is repeated again and again. Sadler implies that the Green Berets are more than men. They could rather be described as ultimate war machines who have even overcome the human fear of dying.

The fifth and sixth stanza tell the story of a brave Green Beret who has " met his fate " , died in combat

. He died for his young wife who is waiting at home , so she will once see " a better day" . These lines are very interesting when seen in context with the Vietnam War . In the U.S.A. of the 9 0s the so called " Domino Theory " was very popular. It stated that if one country would become communist-ruled the other neighboring countries would sooner or later become communist , too. From the American point of view , communism was regarded as evil and oppressing , so they did not want the rest of the world to be communist .For both their and

America's sake , they intervened in Vietnam⁸ . With this background-information in mind , the significance of

the sentence : " he has died so that she may live " becomes clear. In order to maintain the democratic order in the western world , men like the green berets have to die , so that our world would not fall into communist suppression.

This Beret of course stands exemplary for the rest of the corps .

The only request he left his wife was to make his son " one of America's best . He is to be made a Green Beret as well . The dead soldier wanted his wife to give the little boy the right education in order to win the green beret some day . Here, a vicious cycle is no be noticed. Sadler's opinion towards dying is blurred : He thinks it is a great thing to die for his country. One day the young boy will probably meet his fate as well.

3 The Aim of the Song :Praise of the Perfect Soldier

Basically , this song portrays a perfect breed of soldier , of almost superhuman virtue , fearlessly fighting to free all the people suffering from the chains a dictator somewhere tied around their feet.

As this song was written during the Vietnam War it is obvious that this song is highly political and that the author approves of warfare ( " fighting soldiers " ) . The text wants the average American to take pride in his Special Forces , because they " will die so that they can live . It is evident to the author that wars need to be fought for the sake of a democratic , free America and therefore a free Western world. He successfully addresses to people's feelings in the times of the Cold War , where everyone feared a Russian airstrike . He talks of young wives waiting at home who have to cope with the loss of their husbands because they lost their lives in combat

for an American nation . I figure that many Americans were glad that such "fearless men " existed . The song is the n° 21 song of the 9 0-1 69 rock era and managed to stay n° 1 for five weeks in 966 . ⁹

This song does not judge of wars in a critical way whatsoever . It is not very objective , either. It plainly praises the active members of the U.S.S.F.. The text states that the Green Berets are weapons against injustice . Therefore Sadler sees no point in condemning warfare , he goes even further and glorifies the inhuman death in the battlefield.

Sadler s aim was to motivate the troops in Vietnam and to get some positive feedback for their mission . This

song does not intend to be critical , on the contrary , its aim is to stir peoples' emotions.

3. Bob Dylan's " With God on Our Side "

3 . The Motto : "In God we trust"

" God's own country " , this is a popular name the Americans gave their country . On the outside , American everyday -life and religiousness are tightly interwoven . Even the American Dollar-bills state it : " In God we trust". In the past , whenever there was the discussion in America , whether to mobilize the army or not , fighting for God was a good argument .

In this well -known protest song of the 0s,Dylan conducts the experiment of critically commentating the

Americans and their relationship to God.

3 Analysis

This poem consists of nine paragraphs , each one consisting of four lines. As a narrator from the Midwest , which played a crucial part in the development of the United States, Dylan guides the reader through American history . The first seven stanzas deal with wars in which one side thought that God was on their side .The last two stanzas could be described as a conclusion the narrator arrives at : It is the statement that if " God is on our

side , he'll stop the next war"- the clear opposite of what God was evidently to stand for in the described history.

The poet starts with the very beginning of the American nation ( first two stanzas ). The first two lines give a rather ironic characterization of a typical Midwesterner , when saying " my name it means nothing and my name it means less , thus Dylan gives a description of a person from the Midwest who lacks any personality and individuality. These lines are ironic because they stand in direct contrast to what the Midwest symbolizes. In the very beginning of the American nation , the Midwest was the region from which America expanded westward

.On the frontier there were no rules a person had to obey and nothing to restrict his movement. So out in the wilderness of the American Midwest , you could not afford to be one of many , you had to stand up for your own. Even today , people from the Midwest claim this spirit has survived. ⁰ In the eyes of the poet , however ,

individualism is wiped out , because the individuals have become victims of conformity.

The narrator is a typical product of his country and the country's values I was taught and brought up there...

) . His opinion and beliefs were formed through his education (the laws to abide ) , and therefore he represents the average American. He learned and obviously seems to believe that his country has always got " God on its side .

The second paragraph retells the story of the American fight against the Indians . Again , irony is used to illustrate the misleading information the history books give : " they tell it so well "what happened during those fights . The following lines suggest that the fight between Indians and Americans was unfair and brutal . Dylan uses a parallelism to express the tempo in which Indians were shot in such battles : The lines six and seven are the same except for the last words , first Indians " fell " and then directly " died".

Although the fight against the Indians could easily be described as an American invasion of foreign territory, the

narrator tells us that his young country had "God on its side .

Without going into details , he mentions the Spanish-American War of 8 ¹ and the Civil War in the third paragraph. Here , Dylan probably wants to point out that in the short history of the U.S. so many wars have been fought that they need not be discussed at great length. The only thing the average American needs to know are the names of the heroes , the narrator " was made to memorize ".Those who have the guns in their hands have God on their side. With this sharp contrast , " guns in their hands , God on their side " ) Dylan stresses the ambiguity of the idea that God is on the side of the fighting Americans. We learn that they , too had God on

their side , even if they had " guns in their hands " to kill. Both wars were officially fought for idealistic reasons , but if you take a closer look it becomes evident that it was not like this .

Many Americans saw the Spanish -American war as an opportunity for American imperialism , although it was

stated that the American troops were sent to Cuba to stop brutal killings . Slavery certainly was an issue over which was fought in the Civil War but basically it was fought for economic reasons. ² So the actual reasons for those wars were not quite of moral nature , mostly they were fought for financial reasons .Dylan wants to point

out that the reasons for the wars mentioned are futile , no matter what kind of pretext they were officially fought over.

In the fourth stanza , Dylan makes the narrator indifferently and shockingly short sum up the first World War, which " came and went". Although he could never quite figure out why it was fought , he learned to accept the fighting and dying in a war that is considered the probably bloodiest war , ever .But more than that , he learned to accept " it with pride " , because he was taught that God was on his nation's side . Therefore he did not see a reason in counting the dead .

The fifth paragraph then deals with what happened in the relations between allied forces and Germans after World War II. Although the Germans , as Dylan puts it in an unbelievably brutal image , have " murdered six million , in the ovens they fried " , now too have God on their side . Those who have fought all their wars in the name of God namely the Americans , are eventually friends with the murderous Germans of once .

This is for some simple reasons : After World War II , the German Government became democratic and therefore was opposed to Russian Communism. The Germans have therefore accepted the American set of political values , hence have God on their side ( in form of the U S ! ).

The sixth paragraph depicts the Cold War between the Western Union and the Eastern-Russian Union. Due to

the ideological brainwashing the narrator is ready to fight the Russians in a war ( " to hate them and to fear them

" ) , always with the certainty in mind that the Almighty is on his side. Therefore he will bravely accept it all. He has learned to hate Russians all his life. It is thus emphasized that hate is not an emotion that a person develops out of his own judgement , but something he is " taught . His own critical ideas are eliminated.

The seventh paragraph deals with a possible nuclear war , thus bringing the enumeration of wars to the ultimate.

This peak is expressed by the words " but now " , indicating its significance within wars .Compared to the other wars , the author has referred to , this seems the very terrible end. This idea is emphasized by the thought that one " push of the button " will eventually destroy the world. Again , this war is likely to be fought by those who are told what to do and do it in blind obedience ( " If fire them we're forced to , then fire them we must " ). Therefore , the mental attitude of having God on one's side when killing other human beings will doubtless lead to the end of all civilization.

Having considered the complete military history , as he was taught in school , from the conquest of the native Indians , then the Mexicans and Confederates , on through two world wars , up to the point where his country trembles on the brink of a nuclear war with Russia , the narrator now comes to a conclusion in the two last stanzas.

These two last stanzas form a contrast because here , the narrator really starts to " think . This thought process puts him in a dark mood : " In many a dark hour . "

He reflects that Jesus Christ , himself , was betrayed by a kiss" .He realizes that God himself was betrayed by what seemed full of love and goodness on the outside : a kiss. Thus he draws the parallel to those who outwardly have the good , " God on their side . In reality , however, this is not love and goodness but evil itself

.

Judas Iscariot in this stanza takes the role the U.S. took in the paragraphs before . He betrayed God by his deeds

, and therefore it is suggested that the United States by their deeds betray God , although claiming to have him on their side.

Judas Iscariot like the U.S. , however , betrayed God so he could not possibly have had God on his side. Considering this , the narrator is confused and "weary as hell " . He comes to the conclusion that God has never been on the side of nations fighting wars but, on the contrary , on the side of those who try to avoid wars ( " he' ll stop the next war " )

The narrator s conclusion remains personal , though . " Each reader is to use his own brain. He is not to accept everything he is told. The author does not want his readers to be uncritical . He rather wants the insight that eventually struck him to be thought over by each individual reader for himself ( " I can't think for you

The author consciously puts himself into contrast to those who just make people blindly believe , what they are saying. Hence , this song displays a thought process the narrator is going through , a development which ends in the conclusion that " if God is on our side he 'll stop the next war .