Bob Dylan Class Poems - uaf.edu · PDF fileBob Dylan was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame ... and Julie Nemrow, 2014), Lyrics 1962–2001 (2004), The Definitive Bob Dylan

Bob Dylan

Poet Details

Musician, singer, and songwriter Bob Dylan was born Robert Allen Zimmerman in Duluth,

Minnesota; he legally changed his name to Robert Dylan in 1962 reportedly in homage to the

poet Dylan Thomas. He is widely recognized as one of the greatest songwriters of the 20th

century. Dylan was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2016.

Bob Dylan was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1982 and the Rock and Roll Hall

of Fame in 1988. His albums Highway 61 Revisited and Blonde on Blonde, as well as the

individual songs “Mr. Tambourine Man,” “Like a Rolling Stone,” and “Blowin’ in the Wind,”

are in the Grammy Hall of Fame. In 2008 he was awarded a Pulitzer Prize Special Citation for

his “profound impact on popular music and American culture, marked by lyrical composition of

extraordinary poetic power.”

An early performer on the folk music scene, influenced by Woody Guthrie, Dylan has evolved a

musical style that includes folk rock, rock, gospel, country, and jazz. He repopularized folk

ballads, and some of his contemporary renditions of the ballad form have appeared in poetry

anthologies; for instance, his song “Mr. Tambourine Man” was included in The Norton

Introduction to Literature (2005).

His writing is known for its verbal dexterity, wit, social commentary, and adept handling of

metaphor and rhyme. His lyrics have had a profound influence on writers as well as other

musicians. Allen Ginsberg, on first hearing Dylan’s music, wrote, “I heard ‘Hard Rain’—and

wept. Because it seemed that the torch had been passed to another generation, from earlier

bohemian, and Beat illumination.” Joyce Carol Oates dedicated her short story “Where Are You

Going, Where Have You Been” to Dylan; Oates has cited the transformative effect of his first

albums: “the genuine power, originality and heartrending pathos . . . were like nothing we’d

encountered before.”

Dylan’s lyrics have been collected in The Complete Annotated Lyrics (edited by Christopher

Ricks, Lisa Nemrow, and Julie Nemrow, 2014), Lyrics 1962–2001 (2004), The Definitive Bob

Dylan Songbook (2001), and Forever Young (2008), illustrated by Paul Rogers. Almost two

dozen of his poems appeared in Hollywood Foto-Rhetoric: The Lost Manuscript (2008),

alongside photographs by Barry Feinstein. Dylan is also the author of a memoir, Chronicles:

Volume One (2001), as well as Tarantula (1971), a prose work written in 1966.

Songwriters: Bob Dylan

Blowin' in the Wind lyrics © Bob Dylan Music Obo Special Rider Music, 1963

Lyrics

How many roads must a man walk down

Before you call him a man

How many seas must a white dove sail

Before she sleeps in the sand

Yes, 'n' how many times must the cannon balls fly

Before they're forever banned

The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind

The answer is blowin' in the wind

Yes, 'n' how many years can a mountain exist

Before it's washed to the sea

Yes, 'n' how many years can some people exist

Before they're allowed to be free

Yes, 'n' how many times can a man turn his head

And pretend that he just doesn't see



Yes, 'n' how many times must a man look up

Before he can see the sky

Yes, 'n' how many ears must one man have

Before he can hear people cry

Yes, 'n' how many deaths will it take till he knows

That too many people have died




Don't Think Twice, It's All Right lyrics © Bob Dylan Music Obo Special Rider Music, 1963

Lyrics

Well it ain't no use to sit and wonder why, babe

Ifin' you don't know by now

An' it ain't no use to sit and wonder why, babe

It'll never do some how

When your rooster crows at the break a dawn

Look out your window and I'll be gone

You're the reason I'm trav'lin' on

Don't think twice, it's all right

And it ain't no use in a-turnin' on your light, babe

The light I never knowed

An' it ain't no use in turnin' on your light, babe

I'm on the dark side of the road

But I wish there was somethin' you would do or say

To try and make me change my mind and stay

We never did too much talkin' anyway

But don't think twice, it's all right

No it ain't no use in callin' out my name, gal

Like you never done before

And it ain't no use in callin' out my name, gal

I can't hear ya any more

I'm a-thinkin' and a-wond'rin' wallkin' way down the road

I once loved a woman, a child I am told

I give her my heart but she wanted my soul


So long honey babe

Where I'm bound, I can't tell

Goodbye is too good a word, babe

So I just say fare thee well

I ain't sayin' you treated me unkind

You could have done better but I don't mind

You just kinda wasted my precious time



Like a Rolling Stone lyrics © Bob Dylan Music Co.

Artist: Bob Dylan

Album: Highway 61 Revisited

Released: 1965

Genre: Classic rock

Lyrics

Once upon a time you dressed so fine

Threw the bums a dime in your prime, didn't you?

People call say 'beware doll, you're bound to fall'

You thought they were all kidding you

You used to laugh about

Everybody that was hanging out

Now you don't talk so loud

Now you don't seem so proud

About having to be scrounging your next meal

How does it feel, how does it feel?

To be without a home

Like a complete unknown, like a rolling stone

Ahh you've gone to the finest schools, alright Miss Lonely

But you know you only used to get juiced in it

Nobody's ever taught you how to live out on the street

And now you're gonna have to get used to it

You say you never compromise

With the mystery tramp, but now you realize

He's not selling any alibis

As you stare into the vacuum of his eyes

And say do you want to make a deal?


To be on your own, with no direction home

A complete unknown, like a rolling stone

Ah you never turned around to see the frowns

On the jugglers and the clowns when they all did tricks for you

You never understood that it ain't no good

You shouldn't let other people get your kicks for you

You used to ride on a chrome horse with your diplomat

Who carried on his shoulder a Siamese cat

Ain't it hard when you discovered that

He really wasn't where it's at

After he took from you everything he could steal


To have on your own, with no direction home


Ahh princess on a steeple and all the pretty people

They're all drinking, thinking that they've got it made

Exchanging all precious gifts

But you better take your diamond ring, you better pawn it babe

You used to be so amused

At Napoleon in rags and the language that he used

Go to him he calls you, you can't refuse

When you ain't got nothing, you got nothing to lose

You're invisible now, you've got no secrets to conceal

How does it feel, ah how does it feel?

To be on your own, with no direction home



Knockin' On Heaven's Door lyrics © Bob Dylan Music Obo Ram's Horn

Artist: Bob Dylan

Album: Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid

Released: 1973

Lyrics

Mama, take this badge off of me

I can't use it anymore

It's gettin' dark, too dark to see

I feel like I'm knockin' on heaven's door

Knock, knock, knockin' on heaven's door




Mama, put my guns in the ground

I can't shoot them anymore

That long black cloud is comin' down

I feel like I'm knockin' on heaven's door






A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall lyrics © Bob Dylan Music Obo Special Rider Music

Artist: Bob Dylan

Album: The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan

Released: 1963

Lyrics

Oh, where have you been, my blue-eyed son?

Oh, where have you been, my darling young one?

I've stumbled on the side of twelve misty mountains

I've walked and I've crawled on six crooked highways

I've stepped in the middle of seven sad forests

I've been out in front of a dozen dead oceans

I've been ten thousand miles in the mouth of a graveyard

And it's a hard, and it's a hard, it's a hard, and it's a hard

And it's a hard rain's a-gonna fall

Oh, what did you see, my blue-eyed son?

Oh, what did you see, my darling young one?

I saw a newborn baby with wild wolves all around it

I saw a highway of diamonds with nobody on it

I saw a black branch with blood that kept drippin'

I saw a room full of men with their hammers a-bleedin'

I saw a white ladder all covered with water

I saw ten thousand talkers whose tongues were all broken

I saw guns and sharp swords in the hands of young children

And it's a hard, and it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard


And what did you hear, my blue-eyed son?

And what did you hear, my darling young one?

I heard the sound of a thunder, it roared out a warnin'

Heard the roar of a wave that could drown the whole world

Heard one person starve, I heard many people laughin'

Heard the song of a poet who died in the gutter

Heard the sound of a clown who cried in the alley

And it's a hard, and it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard


Oh, who did you meet, my blue-eyed son?

Who did you meet, my darling young one?

I met a young child beside a dead pony

I met a white man who walked a black dog

I met a young woman whose body was burning

I met a young girl, she gave me a rainbow

I met one man who was wounded in love

I met another man who was wounded with hatred

And it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard

It's a hard rain's a-gonna fall

Oh, what'll you do now, my blue-eyed son?

Oh, what'll you do now, my darling young one?

I'm a-goin' back out 'fore the rain starts a-fallin'

I'll walk to the depths of the deepest black forest

Where the people are many and their hands are all empty

Where the pellets of poison are flooding their waters

Where the home in the valley meets the damp dirty prison

Where the executioner's face is always well-hidden

Where hunger is ugly, where souls are forgotten

Where black is the color, where none is the number

And I'll tell it and think it and speak it and breathe it

And reflect it from the mountain so all souls can see it

Then I'll stand on the ocean until I start sinkin'

But I'll know my song well before I start singin'

And it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard

It's a hard rain's a-gonna fall

Lay Lady Lay, Bob Dylan 1969

Lay, lady, lay

Lay across my big brass bed

Lay, lady, lay


Whatever colors you have in your mind

I’ll show them to you and you’ll see them shine

Lay, lady, lay


Stay, lady, stay

Stay with your man awhile

Until the break of day, let me see ya' make him smile

His clothes are dirty but his, his hands are clean

And you’re the best thing that he’s ever seen

Stay, lady, stay

Stay with your man awhile

Why wait any longer for the world to begin

You can have your cake and eat it too

Why wait any longer for the one you love

When he’s standing in front of you

Lay, lady, lay


Stay, lady, stay

Stay while the night is still ahead

I long to see you in the morning light

I long to reach for you in the night

Stay, lady, stay

Stay while the night is still ahead


It Ain't Me Babe lyrics © Bob Dylan Music Obo Special Rider Music

Artist: Bob Dylan

Album: Another Side of Bob Dylan

Released: 1964

Lyrics

Go 'way from my window

Leave at your own chosen speed

I'm not the one you want, babe

I'm not the one you need

You say you're lookin' for someone

Who's never weak but always strong

To protect you an' defend you

Whether you are right or wrong

Someone to open each and every door

But it ain't me, babe

No, no, no, it ain't me babe

It ain't me you're lookin' for, babe

Go lightly from the ledge, babe

Go lightly on the ground

I'm not the one you want, babe

I will only let your down

You say you're lookin' for someone

Who will promise never to part

Someone to close his eyes for you

Someone to close his heart

Someone who will die for you an' more


No, no, no, it ain't me babe


Go melt back in the night

Everything inside is made of stone

There's nothing in here moving

An' anyway I'm not alone

You say you're looking for someone

Who'll pick you up each time you fall

To gather flowers constantly

An' to come each time you call

A lover for your life an' nothing more


No, no, no, it ain't me, babe



The Times They Are A-Changin' lyrics © Bob Dylan Music Co.

Artist: Bob Dylan

Album: The Times They Are a-Changin'

Released: 1964

Lyrics

Come gather around people

Wherever you roam

And admit that the waters

Around you have grown

And accept it that soon

You'll be drenched to the bone

And if your breath to you is worth saving

Then you better start swimming or you'll sink like a stone

For the times they are a-changing

Come writers and critics

Who prophesize with your pen

And keep your eyes wide

The chance won't come again

And don't speak too soon

For the wheel's still in spin

And there's no telling who that it's naming

For the loser now will be later to win

Cause the times they are a-changing

Come senators, congressmen

Please heed the call

Don't stand in the doorway

Don't block up the hall

For he that gets hurt

Will be he who has stalled

There's the battle outside raging

It'll soon shake your windows and rattle your walls

For the times they are a-changing

Come mothers and fathers

Throughout the land

And don't criticize

What you can't understand

Your sons and your daughters

Are beyond your command

Your old road is rapidly aging

Please get out of the new one if you can't lend your hand


The line it is drawn

The curse it is cast

The slowest now

Will later be fast

As the present now

Will later be past

The order is rapidly fading

And the first one now will later be last



It's Alright, Ma lyrics © Bob Dylan Music Co.

Artist: Bob Dylan

Album: Bringing It All Back Home

Released: 1965

Lyrics

Darkness at the break of noon

Shadows even the silver spoon

The handmade blade, the child's balloon

Eclipses both the sun and moon

To understand you know too soon

There is no sense in trying

Pointed threats, they bluff with scorn

Suicide remarks are torn

From the fool's gold mouthpiece

The hollow horn plays wasted words

Proves to warn that he's not busy being born

Is busy dying

Temptation's page flies out the door

You follow, find yourself at war

Watch waterfalls of pity roar

You feel to moan but unlike before

You discover that you'd just be

One more person crying

So don't fear if you hear

A foreign sound to your ear

It's alright ma, I'm only sighing

As some warn victory, some downfall

Private reasons great or small

Can be seen in the eyes of those that call

To make all that should be killed to crawl

While others say don't hate nothing at all

Except hatred

Disillusioned words like bullets bark

As human gods aim for their mark

Made everything from toy guns that spark

To flesh-colored Christs that glow in the dark

It's easy to see without looking too far

That not much is really sacred

While preachers preach of evil fates

Teachers teach that knowledge waits

Can lead to hundred-dollar plates

Goodness hides behind its gates

But even the president of the United States

Sometimes must have to stand naked

An' though the rules of the road have been lodged

It's only people's games that you got to dodge

And it's alright ma, I can make it

Advertising signs that con you

Into thinking you're the one

That can do what's never been done

That can win what's never been won

Meantime life outside goes on

All around you

You lose yourself, you reappear

You suddenly find you got nothing to fear

Alone you stand with nobody near

When a trembling distant voice, unclear

Startles your sleeping ears to hear

That somebody thinks they really found you

A question in your nerves is lit

Yet you know there is no answer fit to satisfy

Insure you not to quit

To keep it in your mind and not forget

That it is not he or she or them or it

That you belong to

Although the masters make the rules

For the wise men and the fools

I got nothing ma, to live up to

For them that must obey authority

That they do not respect in any degree

Who despise their jobs, their destinies

Speak jealously of them that are free

Do what they do just to be nothing more than something they invest in

While some on principles baptized

To strict party platform ties

Social clubs in drag disguise

Outsiders they can freely criticize

Tell nothing except who to idolize

And then say "God bless him"

While one who sings with his tongue on fire

Gargles in the rat race choir

Bent out of shape from society's pliers

Cares not to come up any higher

But rather get you down in the hole that he's in

But I mean no harm nor put fault

On anyone that lives in a vault

But it's alright ma, if I can't please him

Old lady judges watch people in pairs

Limited in sex, they dare

To push fake morals, insult and stare

While money doesn't talk, it swears

Obscenity, who really cares

Propaganda, all is phony

While them that defend what they cannot see

With a killer's pride, security

It blows the minds most bitterly

For them that think death's honesty

Won't fall upon them naturally

Life sometimes must get lonely

My eyes collide head-on with stuffed graveyards

False gods, I scuff

At pettiness which plays so rough

Walk upside-down inside handcuffs

Kick my legs to crash it off

Say okay, I have had enough

What else can you show me?

And if my thought-dreams could be seen

They'd probably put my head in a guillotine

But it's alright ma, it's life, and life only


With God on Our Side lyrics © Bob Dylan Music Co.

Artist: Bob Dylan

Album: The Times They Are a-Changin'

Released: 1964

Lyrics

Oh my name it ain't nothin'

My age it means less

The country I come from

Is called the Midwest

I was taught and brought up there

The laws to abide

And that land that I live in

Has God on its side

Oh, the history books tell it

They tell it so well

The cavalries charged

The Indians fell

The cavalries charged

The Indians died

Oh, the country was young

With God on its side

The Spanish-American

War had its day

And the Civil War, too

Was soon laid away

And the names of the heroes

I was made to memorize

With guns in their hands

And God on their side

The First World War, boys

It came and it went

The reason for fighting

I never did get

But I learned to accept it

Accept it with pride

For you don't count the dead

When God's on your side

The Second World War

Came to an end

We forgave the Germans

And then we were friends

Though they murdered six million

In the ovens they fried

The Germans now, too

Have God on their side

I've learned to hate the Russians

All through my whole life

If another war comes

It's them we must fight

To hate them and fear them

To run and to hide

And accept it all bravely

With God on my side

But now we got weapons

Of chemical dust

If fire them, we're forced to

Then fire, them we must

One push of the button

And a shot the world wide

And you never ask questions

When God's on your side

Through many a dark hour

I've been thinkin' about this

That Jesus Christ was

Betrayed by a kiss

But I can't think for you

You'll have to decide

Whether Judas Iscariot

Had God on his side.

So now as I'm leavin'

I'm weary as Hell

The confusion I'm feelin'

Ain't no tongue can tell

The words fill my head

And fall to the floor

That if God's on our side

He'll stop the next war

Documents

Bob Dylan Class Poems - uaf.edu · PDF fileBob Dylan was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame ... and Julie Nemrow, 2014), Lyrics 1962–2001 (2004), The Definitive Bob Dylan