Back when I was at University I completed a lot of English subjects. You needed 60 credits points for an English major in your B.A. which usually meant doing 6 semester-long subjects.
I ended up with the equivalent of a quadruple major.
I studied all sorts of literature (Renaissance, Romantic, Victorian, Restoration, 20th Century, Australian, Third World, Metaphysical, Drama, Poetry, Prose, Language & Rhetoric etc etc) and found something to enjoy and be inspired by in each of them.
But of all those semester units the ones that appealed to me most powerfully were American Lit A, B and C.
There was something about the language of writers like Steinbeck, Frost, Hemingway, Faulkner, Heller and Vonnegut that rang true – a clarity and honesty and uniqueness in their voices that spoke directly to me. And all of them writing in the shadow of the American Dream.
I’ve been reflecting on all that a bit lately because I’ve just finished reading this terrific biography of Paul Simon.
It reminded me of his genius as a songwriter and story-teller. His lyrics are so clean and sharp, so intelligent and surprising. As a writer in general I would place his name comfortably alongside Steinbeck and all those others. (I’d place Dylan there too.)
As a result I’ve been playing a lot of Paul Simon songs recently.
One of my favourites has always been America (Let us be lovers, we’ll marry our fortunes together.) It contains one of my favourite lines.
So I looked at the scenery, she read her magazine
And the moon rose over an open field
It’s such a simple, perfect line and the pacing and melody and the drums that follow make it so powerful and beautiful.
Whenever I hear it I’m reminded of this Robert Frost poem.
Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening.
Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.
My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.
He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound’s the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.
The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.
It’s a deceptively simple piece of writing too. The whole scenario is summed up in the title.
I think Simon’s song and Frost’s poem have a fair bit common.
Both narrators are travelling at night. And even though they are both accompanied, they are still quite alone in their thoughts and feelings.
Frost’s traveller has his ‘little horse’ who can’t understand why they would be pausing in their journey and Simon’s traveller has ‘Kathy’ who falls asleep.
Both narrators are also feeling the pressures and demands of life.
While Frost’s has ‘promises to keep and miles to go’ before he sleeps, Simon’s is ‘lost’ and confesses to his sleeping companion, ‘I’m empty and aching and I don’t know why.’
Most importantly, both narrators share a moment of calm where they commune with nature.
Simon’s character watches as the moon rises over that open field.
And ‘on the darkest evening of the year’ Frost’s character stops his journey long enough to gaze in silence as those ‘lovely, dark and deep’ woods fill up with snow.
(‘The only other sound’s the sweep of easy wind and downy flake.’ What a line!)
We’ll never know what the future held for either of those characters. But personally, I think that despite his horse’s objections, and all the promises and miles that lay ahead, Frost’s traveller did the right thing to stop ‘between the woods and frozen lake’ on that snowy evening.
And Kathy’s troubled companion?
Well I think he should definitely stop counting all those cars on the New Jersey turnpike and spend much more time watching the moon rise over an open field.
We all should.
Cheers
Michael
PS: In 2009 I got to see Simon and Garfunkel live in Brisbane. “Time it was, and what a time it was!”
PPS: Do you have a favourite Paul Simon lyric/song?Â
Michael Gerard Bauer Author 