Simon & Garfunkel: I Am A Rock Meaning

Song Released: 1966

I Am A Rock Lyrics

A winter’s day
In a deep and dark December;
I am alone,
Gazing from my window to the streets below
On a freshly fallen silent shroud of snow.
I am a rock,
I am an island.
I’ve built walls,
A fortress deep and mighty,
That none may...

1. anonymous

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   Mar 13th 2012 !⃝

   To the person who interepreted this song as being about Autism/Asperger's Syndrome; I think your insight is quite valid, actually. There are many people who beleive that Art Garfunkle might have been an Asperger. I know that Simon wrote most of the songs, but it's possible that many of them, including this one, were influenced by his relationship with Garfunkle. It is possible that this song has to do with how Simon veiwed his potentially Aspie friend Garfunkle.

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2. anonymous

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   Mar 6th 2012 !⃝

   This song isn't probably intentionally about this, but I'm thinking Asperger's Syndrome. For those of you who don't know, it's a form of High-functioning Autism. A lot of people havn't heard of it, because a kid with Asperger's Syndrome dosn't appear to be autistic unless you really know what autism is. So most people don't realize their disabled, and they're often not diagnosed untill late in their Elementary School carrer. Basically, Asperger's Syndrom is all the people who as kids were(or are) labled as 'weird' and shoved aside by everyone else.
   Kids on the autism spectrum are unable to pick up on social cues that are natural instinct to everyone else. (i.e facial expressions, tone of voice, body language, ect.) I know there are 'normal' people who can't do that, but an autistic person is significantly impared in this area. So socializing is difficult, making friends often ends with tears. "If I never loved I never would have cried."
   
   Sometimes they appear to be stoic and hard, with little emotion or care to interact with others, mostly because they are rarely succesful at doing so, and just end up frusterated and hurt. Thus, "I am a rock.
   
   Kids with autism/Asperger's sometimes tend to isolate themselves in thier own little world to avoid the frustration and confusion of the rest of the world. Thus, "I am an Island."
   
   "I have my books
   And my poetry to protect me;
   I am shielded in my armor,
   Hiding in my room, safe within my womb."
   
   This one is what really got me thinking about this song as autism/asperger's. It is somewhat literal: People with autism/Asperger's are known to have abnormal facinations on specific topics, and spend abnormal amounts of time hidden in thier room reaserching them. Often, though they want friends, they simply cannot make them, and instead lose themselves in their own little world by absorbing themselves in books, or poetry, or reaserch.
   
   "I touch no one and no one touches me."
   This one is also a huge indicator of my theory, (if you take it literally): Kids with Asperger's/Autism often find serious discomfert in being touched by others. Even little things like a pat on the back, or when someone brushes against them in a busy hallway.
   
   
   "It's laughter and loving I distain."
   Laughter, because the other kids are usually laughing at him/her for being awkward. Loving because other kids can seem to love accept eachother, but not him/her.
   
   The song probably isn't actually about Asperger's Syndrome, because the disorder hasn't gained much momentum untill recently, (1 in 110 kids have and autism specrum disorder. Just ten years ago, it was like 1 in 100, and Thirty years ago it was 1 in 2500 or something like that.)so the wave of Asperger's kids wasn't really around at that time. At the time, they were just the socially isolated weirdos, or the obnoxious weirdos, or the clumsy awkward kids. So at the time, it was probably intended to be about people who have been isolated by their peers, ie loners and nerds who in most cases are really people on the autism spectrum. I don't think a lot of people realize this, though.
3. anonymous

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   Sep 12th 2011 !⃝

   If you think of yourself as a rock and a island in your mind you separate yourself of being human, and you would use it as a defense mechanism to suppress your painful emotions and avoid dealing with them, it is a common truth that whatever relationship we get ourselves involved in we will suffer adversity from it at some point, so this song is a story about a Man who can not deal with life and people anymore and wants to hide from the world and everyone in it, because he doesn't know how to deal nor cope with his feelings, rejection and conflict with others so his solution is seclusion and to fantasize of being an object that has no emotions.
4. anonymous

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   Aug 18th 2011 !⃝

   The song "I Am a Rock" is clearly about a guy who decides to insulate and protect himself in order to keep from being hurt--a sort of tough-guy facade.
5. anonymous

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   Aug 17th 2011 !⃝

   I believe this song is about an older person; man or woman. December represents age.
   
   The walls are built after many years of experiences and the fortress of the wisdom that comes with the painful knowledge of relationships.
   
   Books and poetry are the sage words of advice given to those who try to approach.
   
   Hiding in my room, safe within my womb... waiting for death to come; a final place where no one can touch.
   
   After death, no one feels pains or cries.
6. anonymous

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   May 25th 2011 !⃝

   the song is about a person isolating himself from others to avoid being hurt. A rock is cold and hard to affect and an island is isolated.
7. anonymous

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   May 8th 2011 !⃝

   I think that this is about someone who has been deeply hurt and is determined not to be hurt again. He thinks that cutting himself off from everyone is the way to accomplish that, and while he may be right, as an earlier poster said, that isn't living.
8. anonymous

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   Dec 22nd 2010 !⃝

   I am a rock is a reference to drugs. Solving and causing pain via the use of drugs. Not some nod to the past which may seem more romantic or intellectual

   This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
9. anonymous

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   Jun 6th 2009 !⃝

   Look at John Donne's No Man is an Island, there's a contrast between the two
10. anonymous

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    May 25th 2009 !⃝

    it is a goood song that expresses a hurt mans' feelings, i think that he got hurt by a woman because he speaks of love, or maybe he got hurt by a true friend.... i know what that feels like... i can relate
11. anonymous

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    May 13th 2009 !⃝

    it's about holden caulfield from catcher in the rye. the first verse fits the setting of the book, and the entire song goes with it.
    holden doesn't let anyone get past his "walls" of friendship and scorns all "phonies" who put up a false front about their own character.
    holden's brother died of leukemia, along with someone he knew from school who committed suicide, and that's what would cause the pain is if someone else would, as his friend, commit suicide. (verse2, i have no need of friendship...causes pain)
    so there's a little for you.

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12. anonymous

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    May 10th 2009 !⃝

    I think this song is a complete satire about a person who gets hurt and decides to shut off the rest of the world because it's just not worth the pain.
    
    But I think Paul Simon is mimicking people who live this way. In fact, I think the message behind the song is to understand that you're going to get hurt but that love and laughter are worth it.
    
    I love the song, it's really great to scream to if you're upset. I'm actually going to get "I am a rock" tattooed on me.
13. anonymous

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    Feb 12th 2009 !⃝

    'I touch no one and no one touches me.'
    
    Maybe autism?

    This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
14. bea00134

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    Jan 16th 2009 !⃝

    To understand this song you MUST read John Donne's Mediatation XVII from Devotions Upon Emergent Occations. The main reference is in the middle of the work. "No man is an island, entire of itself". Donne was very ill at the time of this writing and thought he was dieing. This work also contains the familiar quote, "Any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind: and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls: it tolls for thee". "A winter's day in deep and dark December" refers to death and "shroud" also is a reference to this.
    
    Also the "books" and "poetry" are interesting parallels. Meditation XVII refers also to a book. "...all mankind is of one author and is one volumn..." also Donne wrote some of the most beautifully sensual love poetry in the English language. (See Elegy XIX - "To His Mistress Going to Bed".)
    
    Donne ends this writing with a thought on pain. "...[A]ffliction is a treasure, and scarce any man hath enough of it. No man hath affliction enough that is not matured and ripened by it, and made fit for God..." The change in mode of the song's last two lines reflects this maturing from a juvenile selfish "me" to a realization of a mature interconnected "us."
    
    And talk about pain and isolation. Donne went to Fleet Prison for secretly marrying his love.
    
    Or ... Paul could have just been pissed at getting dumped!
    
    Peace
15. simonandgarfunkel

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    Oct 29th 2008 !⃝

    You all have it wrong. My 12th grade English teacher showed us a poem from the middle ages. I wish I could remember who wrote it and what it was called, but it was about a metaphor of being like an island and keeping the world outside of your troubles. An island/rock never feels pain and doesn't cry. I will look into where it came from and what it was really based upon, unless someone out there can beat me to it, but it certainly is based on a poem from centuries ago. Nice thoughts though, everyone.

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