By Larry Fyffe
- Bob Dylan and Thomas Hardy Part I
- Bob Dylan and Thomas Hardy Part II
- Bob Dylan And Thomas Hardy (Part III)
- Bob Dylan And Thomas Hardy (Part IV)
- Bob Dylan And Thomas Hardy (Part V)
- Bob Dylan and Thomas Hardy (Part VI)
- Bob Dylan And Thomas Hardy (Part VII)
- Bob Dylan And Thomas Hardy (Part VIII) (and 7 Curses, as nowhere else)
- Bob Dylan and Thomas Hardy Part IX
- Bob Dylan And Thomas Hardy (Part X)
- Bob Dylan And Thomas Hardy (Part XI)
- Bob Dylan And Thomas Hardy (Part XII)
- Bob Dylan And Thomas Hardy (Part XIII)
- Dylan and Hardy XIV: Two on a Tower
Thomas Hardy sprinkles his novels with quotes from songs and poems; Bob Dylan sprinkles his musical song lyrics with quotes from songs and poems.
Whether from his direct reading thereof, or it’s through the cultural milieu surrounding him (Carl Jung would say through the ‘collective unconscious’), the singer/songwriter reveals, in his song lyrics beneath, the influence of the “Late Victorian” writer Thomas Hardy:
Your daddy walks in wearing A Napoleon Bonaparte mask Then you ask me why I don't live here Honey, do you have to ask (Bob Dylan: On The Road Again)
Thomas Hardy’s writings often have a ‘social’ Darwinist twist to them. In the poem below, depicted be that the development of mankind’s socio-economic environment becomes more and more industrialized; there’s some hope – symbolized by the singing of the thrush – that the urbanized environment will not destroy the human ‘soul’:
An aged thrush, frail, gaunt, and small ln blast-beruffled plume Had chosen thus to fling his soul Upon the growing gloom (Thomas Hardy: The Darkling Thrush)
“Darkling” too be Tom’s blues below:
Sweet Melinda The peasants call her the goddess of gloom She speaks good English And she invites you up into her room (Bob Dylan: Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues)
Pessimism strikes deep into Hardy’s heart:
Yet is it that, though whiling The time somehow In walking, talking, smiling I live not now (Tom Hardy: The Dead Man Walking)
Very much like the dark sentiment expressed in the following song lyrics:
Ain't talking, just a-walking Though this weary world of woe Heart burning, still yearning No one on earth will ever know (Bob Dylan: Ain't Talking)
Poet WH Auden be very much under the influence of Thomas Hardy’s referencing ballads of yore, and of the Victorian’s social ‘Darwinist’ slant in his novels and poems. Hallmarks revealed in the works of both writers.
Taken it can be that wife-killer Victor, a religious bank clerk (in the poem below) is unable to adapt to the values of the bourgeois social environment; thinks Anna, his flirty wife, is cheating on him:
It wasn't the Jack of Diamonds Nor the Joker she drew first It wasn't the King or Queen of Hearts But the Ace of Spades reversed Victor stood in the doorway He didn't utter a word She said "What's the matter, darling?" He behaved as if he hadn't heard (WH Auden: Victor)
In the song lyrics beneath, it’s the two-timing, aristocratic-acting ‘nouveau riche’ Big Jim who doesn’t survive the repainting of the times:
She fluttered her false eyelashes, and whispered in his ear "Sorry, darling, that I'm late", but he didn't seem to hear He was staring into space over at the Jack of Hearts (Bob Dylan: Lily, Rosemary, And The Jack Of Hearts)
Footnotes:
In case you missed it: The Bob Dylan album artwork. The art work that has appeared on around 35 Dylan albums – how it was created, where it came from. A unique series.
If you’d like to write for Untold Dylan, please email Tony@schools.co.uk