Comfortably Numb

"Comfortably Numb" by Pink Floyd is created within eleven stanzas, starting with the one word line, "Hello". The songs lines are short in the first three stanzas and then get longer in the next two stanzas. As you continue through the lyrics you see that the stanzas switch from short lines to long lines back to short. There is no particular format to the rhyme scheme of this song, but is consistent.
What is literally happening in this poem is the conversation between two people, the doctor and one of the members of the band which is evident through the stanza that reads:
"Relax
I need some information first
Just the basic facts
Can you show me where it hurts?"
While the doctor is giving the member medicine, he reminisces about the same feeling he had as a child, the feeling of being comfortably numb, being the same feeling as a child just another experience.
There are various types of figurative language used in this song. Onomatopoeia is used in the line “There’ll be no more aaaaaaaah!” imitating the sound of screaming. The use of repetition, “I…have become comfortably numb” shows the extent of the poet’s feelings at the time.  This song uses a great deal of similes and metaphors, “My hands just felt like two balloons”, and “I caught a fleeting glimpse Out of the corner of my eye”, being two examples. Symbolism being another piece of figurative language used, a conversation happening between two people, symbolizing the struggle between childhood and adulthood, innocence and naïve versus experienced and immune adulthood. Not knowing where and what point of his life that everything changed, hope he coped and how he dealt with the struggles because they always existed, but the moment that how he dealt with it changed. Referencing the ship smoking in the horizon is an example of the use of imagery. “Just a little pin prick”, being the image of a needle and symbolizing “the cure” for ones “sickness” which symbolizes ones pain.  The entire song is a form of imagery and symbolism, we picture a very sick man being medicated by a doctor and having the conversation with each other, as well as the flashbacks to childhood, when really the entire song symbolizes childhood to adulthood, and how we become numb to life’s miseries and heartache, our innocence is lost and cynicism and numbness is found.
One's first reaction to interpretation to this song would be drug use, specifically heroin. Personally, I do not believe this to be true. This song is about feeling and emotion and the initial pain we feel as a child that grows to be a more emotional pain throughout life’s constant struggles and overcoming those obstacles by becoming immune to the pain life brings on, becoming comfortably numb, meaning without feeling and accepting that. Making reference to the line "your lips move but I can’t hear what you’re saying" meaning the world continues to grow round, the people of the world continue to talk and go about their lives, but after years of life’s pains and struggles and the worlds bullshit, you become immune and cynical. People automatically become detached, a defense mechanism that helps them cope, withdrawing emotionally, mentally and physically and maintaining the constant need for numbness, to not feel or react to life’s turmoil.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1htZFVGsBMw