Grocott's Mail
    Facebook Twitter Instagram
    Sunday, July 20
    Facebook Twitter Instagram
    Grocott's Mail
    • NEWS
      • Courts & Crime
      • Features
      • Politics
      • People
      • Health & Well-being
    • SPORT
      • News
      • Results
      • Sports Diary
      • Club Contacts
      • Columns
      • Sport Galleries
      • Sport Videos
    • OPINION
      • Election Connection
      • Makana Voices
      • Deur ‘n Gekleurde Bril
      • Newtown… Old Eyes
      • Incisive View
      • Your Say
    • CUE
      • Cue Archives
    • ARTSLIFE
      • Makana Sharp!
      • Visual Art
      • Literature
      • Food
      • Festivals
      • Community Arts
      • Going Places
    • OUR TOWN
      • What’s on
      • Spiritual
      • Emergency & Well-being
      • Covid-19
      • Safety
      • Civic
      • Municipality
      • Weather
      • Properties
        • Grahamstown Properties
      • Your Town, Our Town
    • OUTSIDE
      • Enviro News
      • Gardening
      • Farming
      • Science
      • Conservation
      • Motoring
      • Pets/Animals
    • ECONOMIX
      • Business News
      • Entrepreneurship
      • Personal Finance
    • EDUCATION
      • Education NEWS
      • Education OUR TOWN
      • Education INFO
    • EDITORIAL
    Grocott's Mail
    You are at:Home»ARTS & LIFE»Dylan; poet; why not?
    ARTS & LIFE

    Dylan; poet; why not?

    Grocott's Mail ContributorsBy Grocott's Mail ContributorsMay 30, 2018No Comments3 Mins Read
    Facebook Twitter Pinterest LinkedIn Tumblr Email

    When, in 2016, the Nobel Prize for Literature was controversially awarded to singer-
    songwriter Bob Dylan, the New York Times reviewer wrote this:

    “In choosing a popular musician for the literary world’s highest honor, the Swedish
    Academy, which awards the prize, dramatically redefined the boundaries of literature, setting
    off a debate about whether song lyrics have the same artistic value as poetry or novels.”
    Since then there have been as many distinguished voices opposing Dylan’s award as
    supporting it – can song lyrics ever be considered poetry?

    I was thinking of this continuing dispute as I joined my fellow guests on ‘The Book & the
    Brain’, Tsitsi Sachikonye’s excellent radio show on RMR on Sunday evening.

    Cape Town-based Rustum Kozain is one of South Africa’s most highly acclaimed poets,
    having won numerous literary prizes over the years. He has just been in Grahamstown as a
    visiting writer on the Creative Writing MA course at Rhodes University. He would probably
    be on the ‘No’ side of the Bob Dylan debate.

    Local resident and prolific writer of limericks, Andy Grewar, occupies the other position; he
    is a big Dylan fan and was there to extol him. So the scene was set for a lively discussion,
    which duly took place. Somewhat cravenly, I remained largely a silent if interested bystander.
    Of course, no conclusion was reached – how could it be? But the arguments were intriguing,
    as were snippets of Dylan’s music: The Times They Are A-changin’, of course, and a couple
    of different versions of All Along the Watchtower.

    Suddenly, Tsitsi blindsided me: “So Harry, what’s your view of Dylan as a Nobel laureate?”
    And I confess that I’m not sure. My good friend, the UK poet John Lindley, is a passionate,
    lifelong and erudite devotee of all things Dylan, and he could certainly put forward a
    convincing case for the award, so who am I to argue? I simply don’t know enough, although I
    love much of the music.

    All that I can think of is to wonder whether Dylan’s lyrics can stand on their own as poetry
    without the tune. And I believe they can.

    To illustrate, here is the text of a Dylan song from the 1960s, a song I have known and loved
    ever since that time. Lyrical, intelligent and Zen-like in its imagery, ‘Love Minus Zero’
    seems to me to be every inch a poem. What do you think?

    Love Minus Zero/No Limit
    My love she speaks like silence
    Without ideals or violence
    She doesn’t have to say she’s faithful
    Yet she’s true, like ice, like fire

    People carry roses
    And make promises by the hours
    My love she laughs like the flowers
    Valentines can’t buy her

    In the dime stores and bus stations
    People talk of situations
    Read books, repeat quotations
    Draw conclusions on the wall

    Some speak of the future
    My love she speaks softly
    She knows there’s no success like failure
    And that failure’s no success at all

    The cloak and dagger dangles
    Madams light the candles
    In ceremonies of the horsemen
    Even the pawn must hold a grudge

    Statues made of matchsticks
    Crumble into one another
    My love winks, she does not bother
    She knows too much to argue or to judge

    The bridge at midnight trembles
    The country doctor rambles
    Bankers’ nieces seek perfection
    Expecting all the gifts that wise men bring

    The wind howls like a hammer
    And the night blows cold and rainy
    My love she's like some raven
    At my window with a broken wing
    Bob Dylan

    Watch and listen here:
    https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=love+minus+zero+lyrics&view=detail&mid=C97D2
    6493CF5FA3B56ABC97D26493CF5FA3B56AB&FORM=VIRE

    Previous ArticleRetail sales contract in first quarter
    Next Article Tik, cocaine, seized in city drug bust
    Grocott's Mail Contributors

      Grocott's Mail Contributors includes content submitted by members of the public, and public and private institutions and organisations - regular and occasional, expert and citizen, opinion and analysis.

      Comments are closed.

      Code of Ethics and Conduct
      GROCOTT’S SUBSCRIPTION
      RMR
      Listen to RMR


      Humans of Makhanda

      Humans of Makhanda

      Weather    |     About     |     Advertise     |     Subscribe     |     Contact     |     Support Grocott’s Mail

      © 2025 Maintained by School of Journalism & Media Studies.

      Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.