It appears I'm the first one to try it. Oh goody.
I got the last stanza. I think that Dylan's line, "I'm a-goin' back out 'fore the rain starts a-fallin'" means that he is trying to spread the word of impending disaster before it strikes. His examples of where he is going to tell people the news illustrate why bad things are going to start happening. He's headed for the "depths of the deepest black forest", or the center of the confusion. Obviously, what we now consider and trust to be safe isn't, since water is poisoned and the homes are near prisons. We never know exactly what or who our enemies are since "the executioner's face is always well hidden". Dylan knows that resistance is futile, yet he'll "stand on the ocean until" he starts sinking. He will consider carefully what he will say to make sure he is right before he begins singing. However, "a hard rain's a-gonna fall", no matter what he--or we--do. Trouble is coming, we just get a warning about it.
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Well, I might as well do this now as I'm waiting to go to work.
I had the third stanza. It starts out with what did you hear, so everything he talks about are auditory things.
"I heard the sound of thunder and it roared out a warning"- if the song is about nuclear warfare, the thunder could be some sort of siren that is warning people of an impending attack.
"Heard the roar of a wave that could drown the whole world"- I took this as some sort of natural disaster, like the tsunami that hit Indonesia, but you could also get a wave like that if a nuclear bomb were to hit the ocean. Another interpretation I had was just to show the power of nature, specifically the ocean, and how little we are in comparison.
"Heard one hundred drummers whose hands were a-blazin'"- I always viewed this part as drummers in some sort of army that are drumming to keep the beat of the men marching behind them.
"Heard ten thousand whisperin' and nobody listening"- Everyone is afraid to actually speak their mind and say it out loud, so they are all whispering because they do not want to get in trouble- you know, be politically correct. Yet, because they are whispering their voice is not being heard.
"Heard one person starve heard many people laughin"- just showing that even though there are people starving throughout the world, many others do not care because their lives are going so well and they have been privileged, but many feel they deserve it.
"Heard the song of a poet who died in the gutter"- the death of the arts.
"Heard the sound of a clown who cried in the alley"- saw this as showing the terribly depressing time they were living in. A clown, who is supposed to be so jovial, is found crying because of how terrible the circumstances have become.
I had the fourth stanza, where Dylan asks who did you meet?
He "met a child beside a dead pony"- to me, this was slightly disturbing. The juxtaposition of these two things, a child and a dead pony, seem to say something about the culture, how things were not as they should be.
He "met a white man who walked a black dog" seems to be saying something in reference to the Civil Rights movement and how colors seem to define our culture, placing some colors lower than others. Using 'man' and 'dog' also refers to how colors are defined, some not seeing all colors be equal men.
He "met a young woman whose body was burning" which could be talking about a movement for women to become more a part of society in all its facets. Although 'bra burning' (which really didn't happen) wouldn't take place till later in the sixties, that is what I thought of when I heard this.
He "met a young girl, she gave me a rainbow" I think talks to the hippie culture with rainbows and sunshine and flowers!
He "met a man who was wounded in love" and another one "wounded with hatred". I think this sums up the entire stanza. People can be consumed with an experience and let it define them. A culture can be the same way. I think that the constasting experiences put forth in this stanza and in this entire song show what the time was like that Dylan was living in. I also think it is relevant today because people still have opposing views, some who see the reality of the world with cynycism (dead pony) and others who refuse to look at the bad things (girl with rainbow).
okie dokie. it's time to play with the Second verse.
Dylan is speaking to an innocent, as noted by the description of "blue-eyed son." He is asking for a visual description of things he saw. Yay imagery! So we'll go image by image and cut to the chase:
"newborn baby with wild wolves all around it"- this is Dylan's image to show how even the youngest and most innocent of society are not safe from the "wild wolves" that run our governments, businesses, and other aspects of American life.
"Highway of diamonds with nobody on it"- This is used to highlight the frivolous waste of American society, showing how we would go and create something so magnificent and then leave it to fade away.
"A black branch with blood that kept on bleeding"- This relates to the racial violence and tensions not only with the color black and the blood, but with the use of a tree, mirroring the blood that was spilled with lynchings.
"A room full of men with their hammers a-bleedin'" - this absurd image begins to dig into fundamental problems of materialism, giving an inanimate object characteristics of a living creature.
"A white ladder all covered in water"- a representation of the paradox of the "moving social structure" in the US; one can climb that ladder, but it's covered with water, making it easy to slip and fall hard.
"ten thousand talkers whose tongues were all broken"- this is another absurd image to show that the system doesn't work. If talker's can't talk, then what's the point?
"guns and sharp swords in the hands of young children"- this image frames the stanza on comments of the youth. The "wild wolves" have corrupted the newborns and trained them to be makers of war. This is a comment on the power of these people leading the country and corrupting society on all levels.
alrighty then, first verse analyzing time!
so it's important to notice the numerology of this verse; and being that I've been looking at numerology in my Sacraments class, a lot of my interpretation goes there
first off, i dunno what it is about the song, but i cant help but picture this as a god-jesus conversation. God asking Jesus where he's been, what he's seen, heard, who he met, and what he's gonna do about it all!
so the young innocent one is being asked where they've been, so yeah
"i've stumbled on the sides of 12 misty mountains" - Christian numerology places emphasis of 12 on the number of apostles. 12 also appears in the story of Jesus with bread and fish from Mark 6, 12 baskets left of fragments. Also, the 12 tribes of Israel. So the religious numerology is very present here, as in the other lines.
"seven sad forests" - 7 loaves of bread, or the 7 fold action of the Eucharist in Mark 6 and 8 (taking, blessing, and breaking bread,then giving it; taking wine, blessing, and drinking)
so yeah, take from that what you will; i dont agree with it but i got nothing better
Yea the first stanza is pretty difficult. Analyzing the numerology is tough because none of it seems to fit with the nuclear disaster theme. Honestly the seven sad forests could be a reference to like the seven dwarfs in snow white who are now really sad because we're own the brink of disaster, who knows. Anyway the 12 mountains are misty i think because Dylan is describing here the aftermath of a nuclear bomb going off. The mountains look misty because of all the ash from the burnt trees, the forests look sad from the destruction, and the nuclear radiation killed the dozen oceans. Why the boy traveled ten thousand miles into the mouth of the graveyard seems drastic, why'd he have to fo ten thousand mile? WHy not 5? Here i think Dylan throws in this number just for some extra imagery.
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