Bob Dylan And  Arthur Rimbaud (Part II)

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Bob Dylan And  Arthur Rimbaud Part 1 can be found here

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By Larry Fyffe

The French surrealist poet Arthur Rimbaud turns fairy tales and nursery rhymes up side down and inside out:

 

Singer/songwriter Bob Dylan, follows Rimbaud down the same dark path to the latrines:

 

Ambiguous the words are for sure – apparently the narrator, and the one to whom he is speaking to in the song, they weep not easily.

The first reference is to the Holy Bible:

(Luke 23:28)

These words are spoken at the time Jesus is going to be put to death; he  shows no remorse to the authorities of the status quo for his rebellious behaviour, and in return asks for no pity; He’s got God on his side as far as He is concerned.

The second reference is to a nursery rhyme:

(Nursery Rhyme)

Mixing in the message from the nursery rhyme – though He’s leaving everyone down on Earth to go astray, it’s best to leave the little shepherd Jesus alone  lest he starts to cry that he doesn’t really want to die.

It’s back to the Bible:

(I Corinthians 15:52)

Suggesting that the little boy eventually  gets to blast his horn, and though help comes too late to save Him from the cross, it comes just in the knick of time to save everybody else. The Universe unfolds as it should

The trumpet player asleep in the manger jumps up and begins to sing and dance that the times, they are a-changing.

Well anyhow, that’s one way to interpret the song ‘Scarlet Town’. Bob Dyan does not the dark as much as Rimbard does, and lights things up a little at the end of the song:

Rimbaud lights no such match:

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