Odds And Ends: The Dylanesque Rhyme Twist (Part IV)

By Larry Fyffe

Bob Dylan likes nothing better than to mess with proper rhyming as illustrated in the following alliterative verses that involve the Dylanesque ‘rhyme twist’.

He sometimes messes with the end-rhyme he carries over from the song that he pays tribute to – ‘dry’/’cry’:

Way up on the mountains, I wonder alone

I’m drunk as the devil, let me alone

It’s beef steak when I’m hungry, rye whiskey when I’m dry

And when I get thirsty, I lay down and cry

(Wilf Carter: Rye Whiskey ~ traditional)

In the lyrics below, Dylan introduce a syllabic end-rhyme: – ‘dry’/’cryin’:

You left me sandin’ in the doorway cryin’

In the dark land of the sun

I’ll eat when I’m hungry, drink when I’m dry

And live my life on the square

And even if the flesh falls off my face

I know someone will be there to care

(Bob Dylan: Standing In The Doorway)

In the following lines, there’s a selfsame rhyme – ‘alone’/’alone’:

Meet me by the moonlight, love, meet me

Meet me by the moonlight alone

For I have a sad story to tell you

To be told by the moonlight alone

(The Carter Family: The Prisoner’s Song ~ traditional)

Below a reworked end-rhyme that is a true one – ‘alone’/’tone’:

The seasons, they are turnin’

And my and heart is yearnin’

To hear the songbird’s melodious tone

Won’t you meet me in the moonlight all alone

(Bob Dylan: Moonlight)

The two songs following Dylan obviously links, and he marks this fact by dropping an odd rhyme twist on the song he sources – ‘upon/pawn’:

Take back all the gifts you have given

But a ring and a lock of your hair

And a card with you picture upon it

It’s a face that is false, but it’s fair

Oh, I’ll pawn you my gold watch and chain, love

And I’ll pawn you my gold diamond ring

(The Carter Family: Gold Watch And Chain ~ by Thomas Westendorf)

Westendorf resonates ‘upon’ with ‘pawn’ within his own song, but Dylan comes up with an unaccompanied cross-over twister – ‘upon it’/’pawn it’:

Ah, princes on the steeple, and all the pretty people

They’re all drinkin’, thinkin’ that they got it made

Exchanging all precious gifts

But you’d better take your diamond ring, you better

pawn it, babe

(Bob Dylan: Like A Rolling Stone)

The following verse by Edgar Allan Poe bears the mark of John Keats;

i.e., ‘La Belle Dame Sans Merci’ – ‘brow’/’now’:

Take this kiss upon thy brow!

And, in parting from you now

Thus much let me avow

You are not wrong, who deem

That my days have been a dream

(Edgar Allan Poe: A Dream Within A Dream)

The song below repeats the selfsame rhyme as in the above poetic work by Poe – ‘brow’/’now’:

You trampled on you as you passed

Left the coldest kiss upon my brow

All my doubts and fears are gone at last

I’ve nothing to tell you now

(Bob Dylan: Tell Ol’ Bill)

Bob Dylan messes with the following song lyrics -‘man’/’x’:

John Hardy was a desperate little man

He carried two guns every day

He shot a man on the West Virginia line

And you oughta seen John Hardy getting away

(The Carter Family: John Hardy ~ traditional)

To go with the end-word in the first line of the traditional song above, Dylan, in the verse below, conjures up an off-rhyme to resonate with it – ‘man’/’hand:

John Wesley Harding was a friend to the poor

He travelled with a gun in every hand

All along this countryside, he opened many a door

But he was never known to hurt an honest man

(Bob Dylan: John Wesley Harding)

It seems that, unlike John Hardy, John Harding has more than two guns, and more than two hands to hold them in.

See also:

Blake, Keats, And Spots Of Ink: Spinning Reels Of Rhyme
Dylan’s Tell Ol Bill: roots in a blues ballad and rhymes from the Romantic poets

And previously in this series

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Odds And Ends: The Dylanesque Rhyme Twist (Part IV)

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