All of that was in an r/bobdylan discussion of this new clip of Timothée Chalamet, getting (too far?) into his impersonation of Bob Dylan:
Welcome to the Church of Bob, Timmy. 🙏🏻🎶❤️
— Melanie Young 🔧 (@FreewheelinMY) December 18, 2024
pic.twitter.com/g7N7S9DfBk
Beat Poets: Dylan has been significantly influenced by Beat Generation poets. He has notably read and been inspired by Jack Kerouac's works like "Mexico City Blues" and "On the Road", as well as Allen Ginsberg's "Howl & Other Poems"....
Classical Literature: Dylan has also engaged with classical poets. For instance, he has read the works of Roman poet Ovid, specifically "Metamorphoses"...
Romantic Poets: His reading includes the Romantic poets; he has cited influences from Samuel Taylor Coleridge and William Blake....
Modernist Poetry: Dylan has a known appreciation for T.S. Eliot's "The Waste Land", one of the seminal works of modernist literature....
American Poets: Dylan's literary interests also include American poets like Walt Whitman, whose democratic and expansive vision of America Dylan found appealing.
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21 comments:
Jesus. A little of that goes a long, long ways.
Trying to see The Waste Land as inspiration for Dylan. Maybe the title.
No, no poetry.
And Ezra Pound and T.S. Eliot fighting in the captain’s tower
Mitchell translation of Rilke
Per Tangled Up in Blue, an Italian poet from the 13th Century?
…widely interpreted as a reference to Dante Alighieri; considered one of the most prominent Italian poets of the medieval period, particularly known for his epic poem "The Divine Comedy."
I doubt he ever read Robert Pinsky. But I am sure he is well versed in Kinky Friedman.
I thought he was a reader of Rimbaud and Verlaine.
"I summoned executioners to gnaw on their rifle butts" the line that caused me to buy a slim volume of Rimbaud in 1975
I have lost many hours listening to Dylan and Kristofferson or reading Frost and Kipling. Pleasant way to spend time.
When I first got an internet connection around 1997, one of the things I did that first week was go into a deep dive on "The Waste Land" where someone had linked together all of the source materials to which Eliot alluded. It made the poem far more accessible than it had been the week we covered it in college composition class in 1985.
Grok doesn't mention Dylan Thomas. That poet had a profound effect on Dylan's identity. Well, maybe not his poetry so much, but definitely his identity or anyway his name.
You can take techniques from poets without downright stealing themes and motifs.
Howl is good but Ginsberg is a bit of one-hit wonder. I wonder if Dylan liked Kipling, E.E. Cummings or Charles Bukowski? Ive tried to read Robert Lowell but he's above my pay grade. I like Eliot and Pound though.
I don't think Dylan's lyrics are meant to be read. His use of language is not comparable to something like Fern Hill, but his melding of imagery and music is something terrific. He created his own art form.
Randy Newman is probably the lyrics master.
Pullman Porter
By Robert W. Service
The porter in the Pullman car
Was charming, as they sometimes are.
He scanned my baggage tags: “Are you
The man who wrote of Lady Lou?”
When I said “yes” he made a fuss —
Oh, he was most assiduous;
And I was pleased to think that he
Enjoyed my brand of poetry.
He was forever at my call,
So when we got to Montreal
And he had brushed me off, I said:
“I’m glad my poems you have read,
I feel quite flattered, I confess,
And if you give me your address
I’ll send you (autographed, of course)
One of my little books of verse.”
He smiled — his teeth were white as milk;
He spoke — his voice was soft as silk.
I recognized, despite his skin,
The perfect gentleman within.
Then courteously he made reply:
“I thank you kindly, Sir, but I
With many other cherished tome
Have all your books of verse at home.
“When I was quite a little boy
I used to savour them with joy;
And now my daughter, aged three,
Can tell the tale of Sam McGee;
While Tom, my son, that’s only two,
Has heard the yarn of Dan McGrew ....
Don’t think your stuff I’m not applaudin’ —
My taste is Eliot and Auden.”
So as we gravely bade adieu
I felt quite snubbed — and so would you.
And yet I shook him by the hand,
Impressed that he could understand
The works of those two tops I mention,
So far beyond my comprehension —
A humble bard of boys and barmen,
Disdained, alas! by Pullman carmen.
There are strange things done in the midnight sun
By the men who moil for gold;
The Arctic trails have their secret tales
That would make your blood run cold;
The Northern Lights have seen queer sights,
But the queerest they ever did see
Was that night on the marge of Lake Lebarge
I cremated Sam McGee
It must have been good if you can still remember the year you bought it!
“Whan that Aprill with his shoures soote
The droghte of March hath perced to the roote,
And bathed every veyne in switch licour
Of which vertu engendred is the flour;
Whan Zephirus eek with his sweete breeth
Inspired hath in every holt and heeth
The tendre croppes, and the yonge sonne
Hath in the Ram his half cours yronne,
And smale foweles maken melodye,
That slepen al the nyght with open ye
(So Priketh hem Nature in hir corages),
Thanne longen folk to goon on pilgrimages,
And palmeres for to seken straunge strondes,”
Followers are ok, but genius is first.
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