Dangling Conversation - Paul Simon

The Dangling Conversation by Paul Simon (Recorded by Simon and Garfunkle)
Its a still life water colour,
Of a now late afternoon,
As the sun shines through the curtained lace
And shadows wash the room.
And we sit and drink our coffee
Couched in our indifference,
Like shells upon the shore
You can hear the ocean roar
In the dangling conversation
And the superficial sighs,
Are the borders of our lives.

And you read your Emily Dickenson,
And I my Robert Frost,
And we note our place with bookmarkers
That measure what we've lost.
Like a poem poorly written
We are verses out of rhythm,
Couplets out of rhyme,
In syncopated time
Lost in the dangling conversation
And the superficial sighs,
Are the borders of our lives.

Yes, we speak of things that matter,
With words that must be said,
Can analysis be worthwhile?
Is the theater really dead?
And how the room is softly faded
And I only kiss your shadow,
I cannot feel your hand,
Youre a stranger now unto me
Lost in the dangling conversation.
And the superficial sighs,
In the borders of our lives.
..........................................
"the multi-layered poetry of "Dangling Conversation",
Listen to the song on You Tube....

I chose this one because it was the song that inspired me to write lyrics when I was 15. The lyric was juxtaposed next to pop lyrics like the Trogg's With a Girl like you. Every other line was 'baba ba ba ba'. I did like the raunchyness of the Troggs and Reg Presley wrote some poetic lyrics too like Night of the Long Grass and Love is All around, but the power of Paul Simon's lyric hit me straight away. Inspired by a popular novel of the time - Dangling Man by Saul Bellow the lyric depicts a relationship well past its sell-by date. Much of Simon's work of the time explored the theme of alienation in different guises. Each verse takes a different art form - Art - Poetry - Drama and the imagery paints a picture using words and images that reflects a relationship that is not just going through the motions eg -  "It's a still life water colour"  "a now late afternoon" "curtain lace" "now shadows wash the room" "superficial sighs" "borders" - there are more if you look at it. Emily Dickenson and Robert Frost symbolise the gender differences and I think some survey in in America reflected that they were the most popular poets and men tended to read and identify with Robert Frost and the women - Emily Dickenson according to one of my students, although I have no evidence of it.

The line about measuring their lives with bookmarkers is an allusion to TS Elliot's line about measuring his life with coffee spoons.
have measured out my life with coffee spoons; from The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock

As that verse is on the poetry theme, the allusion to TS Elliot is doubly appropriate.One student wondered why Simon had used the archaic 'Unto' in the third verse, until someone else pointed out that the verse was centered on the theatre and 'unto' was porbably an allusion to Shakespearian theatre - which actors often like to break into to impress! There's a lot of subltlety and multi-layering here and one of Simon's best. Paul Simon worked at his lyrics and wrote slowly - his output for the Simon and Garfunkle is great compared with other writers in terms of quantity but the quality of his work is often outstanding. .

Synopsis (3 Versions) : Dangling Man