You may also find these indexes useful…
- American poets and writers to whom Dylan pays tribute: an index
- British and French writers In reference to Bob Dylan’s song lyrics
By Larry Fyffe
Bob Dylan songs often crunch past and present and future time into a singularity.
To give listeners a linear time perspective on British/French poets and writers that Dylan actually or seemingly alludes to in his song lyrics, here are the birth and death dates of writers that I’ve referred to in my articles.
The writers cited are listed in chronological order by date of birth, and in each case followed by a one line summary of their position in literature. Beneath that is a link to an article (or two) on this site that includes mention of this poet – although please do note that these range from articles that are primarily dedicated to the link between the poet and Bob Dylan, to articles that touch upon the writer in less detail.
We are aware from correspondence both from academics and students that this site is being used for the purposes of studying Bob Dylan’s work, and of course we find that incredibly gratifying. Indeed we hope that this list might be of help in that work.
All that we ask in return is that if you do utilise this page, or indeed extract data from any other page from this site, you do cite the author of the page and the website “Untold Dylan” as the source.
Homer ( ? – ? BC)
Odessey: Ulyssess journeys home to his faithful wife after victory at Troy
Catullus (84 BC – 54 BC)
Let Us Live And Love: Pleasure and pain of love and certainty of death
*Virgil (70 BC – 19 BC)
Aeneid: Aeneas founds Rome after defeat of Troy
*Ovid (43BC – 18 AD)
Sadness: Ovid’s lonesome exile on the Black Sea
* See also Canterbury Tales: Religious pilgrimage; influence of Virgil and Ovid in Bob Dylan and Geoffrey Chaucer
Khayyam (1048 – 1131)
Rubaiyat: Zarathustrian one God of Wisdom; free will and individual responsibility; mixed world of order and chaos; solace in earthly pleasures
Rumi (1207 -1273)
The Guest House: Inward union with God through poetry, music and dance
The Great White Wonder: Bob Dylan And Robert Graves
Dante (1265 – 1321)
Divine Comedy: Pilgrimage from hell, through purgatory, to heaven;
influence of Virgil and Ovid
Cervantes (1547 -1616)
Don Quixote: Satire of a chivalrous knight searching for adventure
Swedenborg (1688 – 1772)
The New Jerusalem: Vision of a spiritual age of love on material Earth
Nietzsche (1844 – 1900)
Thus Spake Zarathustra: Eternal recurrence of order (Apollo) and chaos
(Dionysus); Overman seeks truth in their fusion as Christianity is an afterlife slave moraliry; existentialism – individual responsibility in an amoral Universe
Freud (1856 – 1939)
The Interpretation Of Dreams: sexual urges and repression
Conrad (1857 – 1924)
Heart Of Darkness: The horror, madness, and hypocrisy of colonial power
Smart (1913 – 1986)
By Grand Central Station I Sat Down And Wept: Emotional power of sexual love
What else is on the site
1: Over 450 reviews of Dylan songs. There is an index to these in alphabetical order on the home page, and an index to the songs in the order they were written in the Chronology Pages.
2: The Chronology. We’ve taken the songs we can find recordings of and put them in the order they were written (as far as possible) not in the order they appeared on albums. The chronology is more or less complete and is now linked to all the reviews on the site. We have also produced overviews of Dylan’s work year by year. The index to the chronologies is here.
3: Bob Dylan’s themes. We publish a wide range of articles about Bob Dylan and his compositions. There is an index here.
4: The Discussion Group We now have a discussion group “Untold Dylan” on Facebook. Just type the phrase “Untold Dylan” in, on your Facebook page or follow this link
5: Bob Dylan’s creativity. We’re fascinated in taking the study of Dylan’s creative approach further. The index is in Dylan’s Creativity.
6: You might also like: A classification of Bob Dylan’s songs and partial Index to Dylan’s Best Opening Lines and our articles on various writers’ lists of Dylan’s ten greatest songs.
And please do note The Bob Dylan Project, which lists every Dylan song in alphabetical order, and has links to licensed recordings and performances by Dylan and by other artists, is starting to link back to our reviews