Recently, our poetry class discussed about Bob Dylan, a talented artist as well as a great poet. I came across one of his song, Blowin' In The Wind. I prefer Joan Baez's cover to Bob Dylan's and Peter Paul & Mary's. I like her voice!
Bob Dylan claimed that he wrote this song in 10 minutes on an afternoon in 1963 while listening to the melody of an old slave song, "No More Auction Block." The Bob Dylan's version of this song wasn't a hit until the band Peter Paul & Mary covered it, thus making it #2 in the U.S and introducing people to the folk music of Bob Dylan.
Here's my own interpretation of the lyrics.
This first stanza generally talks about Dylan's anti-war sentiment. He asked how much do people have to fight each other, before racial discrimination was banned? And how much African Americans have to suffer before they could attain peace. When would social unrest end?
Dylan posed the questions of freedom and human ignorance. He sympathized with people who lived for generations yet could not attain freedom, and also criticized people who knew about racial prejudice problems in America but chose to ignore it.
The "sky" represents freedom, and the "cry" represents the disregard of people. Ignorance and freedom are recurring themes in his poem. He asks "he," or the President, how many more deaths must occur to make the President notice that the racial problem in America needs a solution.
The "wind" that Dylan mentions at the end of every stanza proposes the idea that the wind is a natural force, thus making it natural for every human being to have their rights and freedom. The poem is a resonance of the Declaration of Independence. If "all men are created equal," and have the rights of "Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness," why haven't these African Americans gotten their freedom and equality in society?
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