Dylan? Genius!
So I couldn't wait any longer, and the Literary Studies Beast within me tore into Oxford Professor of Poetry Christopher Ricks' latest explicating tome, Dylan's Visions of Sin (see last post). And, boy, am I glad I did!
Among the revelations in the introductory chapter were insights into this couplet from the Bobster's "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue":
The highway is for gamblers, better use your sense
Take what you have gathered from coincidence
One of the best rhymes, that. For all rhymes are a coincidence issuing in a new sense. It is a pure coincidence that sense rhymes with coincidence, and from this you gather something. Every rhyme issues a bet, and is a risk, something for gamblers--and a gambler is a better ("for gamblers, better use . . . ").
Granted, it is possible that all this is a mere coincidence, and that I am imagining things, rather than noticing how Dylan imagined things. We often have a simple test as to whether critical suggestions are far-fetched. If they hadn't occured to us, they are probably strained,
silly-clever . . . So although for my part I believe that the immediate succession "gamblers, better . . . " is Dylan's crisp playing with words, not my doing so, and although I like the idea that there may be some faint play in the word "sense," which in the American voicing is indistinguishable from the small-scale financial sense "cents," I didn't find myself persuaded when a friend suggested that all this money rolls and flows into "coincidence," which does after all start with c o i n, coin. Not persuaded partly, I admit, because I hadn't thought of it myself, but mostly because this is a song, not a poem on the page. On the page, you might see before your very eyes that coincidence spins a coin, but the sound of a song, the voicing of the word "coincidence," can't gather coin up into itself. Anyway Dylan uses his sense.
I can't wait for the discussion of "Rainy Day Women #12 & 35" coming up on page 440. "Everybody must get stoned!"
Can't write now. Must replay all Dylan's albums for further insights.
[NOTE TO SELF: The "block quote" feature on Blogger sucks ass.]
Among the revelations in the introductory chapter were insights into this couplet from the Bobster's "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue":
The highway is for gamblers, better use your sense
Take what you have gathered from coincidence
One of the best rhymes, that. For all rhymes are a coincidence issuing in a new sense. It is a pure coincidence that sense rhymes with coincidence, and from this you gather something. Every rhyme issues a bet, and is a risk, something for gamblers--and a gambler is a better ("for gamblers, better use . . . ").
Granted, it is possible that all this is a mere coincidence, and that I am imagining things, rather than noticing how Dylan imagined things. We often have a simple test as to whether critical suggestions are far-fetched. If they hadn't occured to us, they are probably strained,
silly-clever . . . So although for my part I believe that the immediate succession "gamblers, better . . . " is Dylan's crisp playing with words, not my doing so, and although I like the idea that there may be some faint play in the word "sense," which in the American voicing is indistinguishable from the small-scale financial sense "cents," I didn't find myself persuaded when a friend suggested that all this money rolls and flows into "coincidence," which does after all start with c o i n, coin. Not persuaded partly, I admit, because I hadn't thought of it myself, but mostly because this is a song, not a poem on the page. On the page, you might see before your very eyes that coincidence spins a coin, but the sound of a song, the voicing of the word "coincidence," can't gather coin up into itself. Anyway Dylan uses his sense.
I can't wait for the discussion of "Rainy Day Women #12 & 35" coming up on page 440. "Everybody must get stoned!"
Can't write now. Must replay all Dylan's albums for further insights.
[NOTE TO SELF: The "block quote" feature on Blogger sucks ass.]
posted by Chazzbot at 12:15 AM
1 Comments:
You might enjoy this video of Sir Christopher speaking about Dylan: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E1CabRxz6Js
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