Contents
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Lyrics
Blackbird singing in the dead of night
Take these broken wings and learn
to fly
All your life
You were only waiting for this
moment to arise.
Blackbird singing in the dead of
night
Take these sunken eyes and learn
to see
All your life
You were only waiting for this
moment to be free.
Blackbird fly Blackbird fly
Into the light of the dark black
night.
Blackbird fly Blackbird fly
Into the light of the dark black
night.
Blackbird singing in the dead of
night
Take these broken wings and learn
to fly
All your life
You were only waiting for this
moment to arise
You were only waiting for this
moment to arise
You were only waiting for this
moment to arise.
Interpretation
This song is a simple allegory about
the struggle of black people, symbolized by the blackbird, to gain complete
freedom, not just the legal freedom that was rendered in 1865. The
dead of night covers the time period between emancipation to the then present,
the 1960s. The slaves were freed but they had nothing but broken
wings to fly with. Many of them stayed on at the plantations because
there simply was no realistic way for them to fly off. The moment
that they've been waiting for all their lives is the gathering storm of
the 1960s, the Civil Rights movement.
In the second verse, the Beatles speak
of taking these sunken eyes and learning to see. How is this different
than broken wings? Well, sight is mental; flight more physical.
Starting with the Brown vs. the Board of Education case in 1954, blacks
moved into the schools, into the world of integrated education. This
is probably what Lennon and McCartney were talking about.
With broken wings, the black community
waits for a moment to arise to march, to protest, and to gain a further
freedom than emancipation had given them. With sunken eyes they will
gain ultimate freedom, the freedom of the mind.
In the chorus, the Beatles are encouraging
blacks to rise up and take advantage of this moment. They still admit
there is much darkness -- it is a dark, black night still -- but there
is a light there and blacks must move towards it.
One question remains: why do
the Beatles say the blackbird was singing in dead of night? It is
there way of acknowledging that blacks have never lost hope throughout
the ages and that they often have expressed that hope through actual song.
It's a very powerful symbol.
Well, that's how I see it, anyway.
As with all allegories, the interpretation fails if all elements don't
contribute to the theme. So far, my students pretty much go along
with this interpretation. But I'm always willing to hear more, to
change my point of view.
Poetic devices
The song has good examples of symbolism.
The blackbird is a symbol for black people. The broken wings are
a symbol for physical incapacitation. The sunken eyes are a symbol
for lack of education. The light of the dark black night is a symbol
for the developing civil rights movement.
There is some imagery in this song.
The singing is an aural image, but not a powerful one. The broken
wings and sunken eyes are strong visual images.
Contrast is used: the black night versus
the small, bright light. Also, seeing with sunken eyes, flying with
broken wings.
The use of repetition is strong.
The final line, sung three times, is a call to arms almost.
Of course, there is rhyme. I
like to point out that the 1st and 3rd lines of the verses aren't total
rhymes -- they're vowel rhymes, night/life.
Musical impact
We discuss the use of acoustical guitar.
Why not electric? The acoustic guitar, plucked rather than strummed,
softens the song greatly. It is a Martin Luther King method of a
call to arms rather than the strident voice of a Malcolm X. This
fits in with the Beatles long-standing view that "all you need is love."
I like to point out that their own call to revolution in "Revolution" has
a soft version to counterbalance the harder one.
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