jasonlulu_2000
Senior Member
- Joined
- Apr 2, 2012
- Member Type
- Student or Learner
- Native Language
- Chinese
- Home Country
- China
- Current Location
- China
This is from a reading passage in my English book.
The American songwriter Bob Dylan is often considered to be as much a poet as a musician. He expressed his political ideas through folk songs in his early period. His melodies were often simple but his words conveyed complex messages, often with subtle nuance of meaning. In one of his songs, he speaks of a 'hard rain' which will fall after a nuclear war. On one level the words denote real, radioactive rain, but the connotations of the words are many: life will be hard, perhaps impossible. Perhaps the consequences will fall hard on the politicians who started the war too. There are many things we can infer from these words. The song reflects the political discourse of the Cold War of the 1960s. It evokes an atmosphere of fear and hopelessness. Seen from the perspective of post-Cold-War era, it may seem difficult to comprehend such fear, but at the time, that fear was very real.
What does the "discourse" mean in the underlined part? It just doesn't make sense.
Thanks!
Jason
The American songwriter Bob Dylan is often considered to be as much a poet as a musician. He expressed his political ideas through folk songs in his early period. His melodies were often simple but his words conveyed complex messages, often with subtle nuance of meaning. In one of his songs, he speaks of a 'hard rain' which will fall after a nuclear war. On one level the words denote real, radioactive rain, but the connotations of the words are many: life will be hard, perhaps impossible. Perhaps the consequences will fall hard on the politicians who started the war too. There are many things we can infer from these words. The song reflects the political discourse of the Cold War of the 1960s. It evokes an atmosphere of fear and hopelessness. Seen from the perspective of post-Cold-War era, it may seem difficult to comprehend such fear, but at the time, that fear was very real.
What does the "discourse" mean in the underlined part? It just doesn't make sense.
Thanks!
Jason
