Hi, All.

It's interesting to reflect that just when poetry got modern and started to shun the old devices and the heartfelt emotions most people can identify with, popular music exploded with new themes combined with the tunes and rhythms of ancient folk songs and sea chanties and things like that. I was very much a part of the folk music and folk rock scene, and when I became religious, a lot of it involved singing newly minted music that sounded like folk and country. I wrote an inventory of my poetry after my computer crashed, and thought about the things that nurtured my work. Certainly one influence was the lyrics of Bob Dylan. When the big volume of all his lyrics came out, I bought it immediately. And I was happy when he got the big prize, even if his reactions were awkward at times.

I want to share some thoughts about one of my favorite Dylan songs, "Mr. Tambourine Man."

This is thought by many to refer to going on a drug trip. I think instead it may refer to running into street musicians in the wee hours, after being out all night and not being able to score a girl. He’s tired, maybe hung over, and feels defeated, lonely and confused. But until someone frees him from himself, he can’t even get a song out of it. He needs inspiration. So it’s a crazy sort of prayer to the muse.

The chorus, four lines with a strange rhyme of me and me, going to and following you. The tambourine man is doing jazz or some other irregular beat, so he imitates that, and has the jinglejangle imitating the sound of the tambourine – a sophisticated device called onomatopoeia – sounds like what it is. The rhythm is catchy, informal and comforting. You just have to feel better, it’s so much fun.

He says he’s not sleepy, but then confesses, My weariness amazes me. Next verse, My senses have been stripped, my hands can’t feel to grip, my toes too numb to step.” He’s in a terrible mess, and yet because of how he feels, he can’t rest. Third verse, he proposes to try out some poetry to accompany the musician while he’s dancing behind. Last verse, he wants to transcend even his art and just dance on the beach, not thinking about “memory and fate.” Why HER diamond sky? Why only ONE hand waving free? That’s never cleared up. Perhaps he fantasizes that he’s with his girl friend.

The verses have a hectic rhyme scheme. Verse one, sad had sand sleeping feet wet dreaming internal rhyme street. Verse two, sleep grip step wandering, fade parade way under it. Verse three, sun one run facing, rhyme time behind mind chasing. Verse four, mind time leaves trees beach sorrow, internal rhyme reach, free, seat, sands fate waves tomorrow, internal rhyme today.

This would never work without the stretchable, chantlike melody, and that’s the point. He has to have a rhythm to bear him along, as well as the magic of inspiration.

I can't get much inspiration from the music coming out lately!
But maybe others can. The older generation was so turned off by Dylan's nasal voice and harsh attitudes that they entirely missed the gold that was in there. So who knows what I am missing that some poet is using even now?

Love, Barbara