The Never Ending Pool

Sense of Humanity: The Intertextuality of ‘Not Dark Yet’
By D.A. Carpenter ( Lookin2GetSiller)

You've been through all of
F. Scott Fitzgerald's books
You're very well read
It's well known
(Ballad of a Thin Man 46-49)

D. A. Carpenter (Lookin2GetSiller)
Sense of Humanity: The Intertextuality of ‘Not Dark Yet’

There’s no doubt that he has been through all of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s books and then some. Bob  Dylan’s lyrics have demonstrated an extensive literary influence since the very beginning of his career. But, even though Dylan has proven himself time and again to be a master lyricist and has remained at the forefront as an important modern poet, his work has yet to be truly accepted as a part of the American literary tradition.

Shadows of literary masters are constantly silhouetted in the background of his lyrics. Whether these shadows are extremely obvious or they just flicker in the lyrics, they are never contrived and always handled with a delicacy and mastery that parallels the likes of Eliot. The American tradition maintained throughout his nearly forty year career echoes ideas found in Whitman, and his lyrical prowess and sense of imagery is painted with the same romantic paintbrush as Keats and Wordsworth. While Dylan has brought sophistication to American popular culture through song much in the same way that Shakespeare gave the lower classes a glimpse of unparalleled drama, he has still been excluded from modern literature studies. This raises a question as to why this is so. The most common answer is that because his words are set to music. Except for very early examples of poetics, traditionally literature has been considered a completely different medium to lyrics combined with music.

If there has ever been a case to combat this belief it is Bob Dylan. In Dylan there is a transcendence of these clear cut mediums; he was the first person to really push the lyric genre, and has continued to do so with his extensive literary and culturally driven writing. Dylanologists and prominent literary critics who’ve jumped on the Dylan band wagon often take note of Dylan’s poetic achievements, some considering him as ‘valid as Keats,’ but they often shy away from questions as to Dylan’s validity in the academic realm. It seems that difficulties arise when people attempt to assess Dylan’s work in a purely academic way. Most often, comparisons are made of Dylan and past literary masters, but are never deeply explored and take the place of serious attention to the lyrics. Hannah Betts also cites this as a problem in an article written on the occasion of Dylan’s sixtieth birthday:

[T]oo much of the ‘Dylan the master poet’ school relies upon the establishment of an entirely meaningless system of analogy - a trainspotter's critique in which this bit of Bob is related to that bit of Eng. Lit., and the entire song is found to be artfully reminiscent of some minor aesthetic moment (1).

This type of critiquing can pose a problem when trying to prove validity for acceptance of Dylan into the literary canon, for it does place Dylan among the poets but does not explicitly state why. Surely his lyrics have more value and quality than what could be considered literary name-dropping. No one would base appreciation of Eliot solely on his ability to allude to past works, nor should anyone do the same with Dylan. It is important, still, to recognize the intertexuality of Dylan’s lyrics, not to merely name drop, but to recognize how the lyrics work in relation to the whole existing order of literature. This is an idea expressed in Eliot’s essay ‘Tradition and the Individual Talent’:No poet, no artist of any art, has his complete meaning alone. His significance, his appreciation is the appreciation of his relation to the dead poets and artists. You cannot value him alone; you must set him, for contrast and comparison, among the dead (1093).In this way, it is inevitable to draw comparisons between past literary masters and the well-read Dylan, but many stop at superficial comparisons. This is most likely due to the fact that Dylan works in a seemingly different medium than Literature. There are rarely any protestations in exploring how Dylan works with past musical traditions, but when discussion crosses the medium into Literature people become apprehensive and sometimes indignant. Apprehensive, because they find it exhaustingly difficult to successfully tread the gray waters of Dylan’s classifications of both poet and singer-songwriter. Indignant, because some feel that a purely literary approach destroys the essence of Dylan’s work, applying, knowingly or not, Wordsworth’s familiar phrase ‘murder to dissect.’ These two views are valid to a certain point. What is needed is a way to appreciate both the literary and musical qualities, without hindering but instead combining the two.

II. ‘Curtain Risin’ On a New Stage’

Dylan has claimed himself to be a poet at one instance and nothing of the sort in another. It is clear that first and foremost he thinks of himself as a musician, but this does not mean that he cannot be viewed as a poet. To fully appreciate the depth of Dylan’s work a new approach must be taken. The approach I will be taking somewhat hinges upon what Dylan says of the interplay of sound and words in a 1977 interview with Playboy magazine:

Yeah, it's the sound and the words. Words don't interfere with it. They- they-punctuate it. You know, they give it purpose. [Pause] And all the ideas for my songs, all the influences, all come out of that. All the influences, all the feelings, all the ideas come from that. I'm not doing it to see how good I can sound, or how perfect the melody can be, or how intricate the details can be woven or how perfectly written something can be. I don't care about those things (Rosenbaum).

A song may not be considered Literature because it is part of a different medium, but maybe the technological accomplishments made in the twentieth century make it time to reassess what is truly literary. Dylan’s work demonstrates that words and music can work harmoniously to add depth to interpretation and make it possible for writing to become even more recursive than it had been in the past. His songs have constantly been reworked musically and lyrically, showing how the author can be given more of a voice than he or she has ever had before. In Dylan’s own words above he acknowledges that it is both the words and music which create the meaning and feeling he is trying to express. French opera critic Catherine Clement, as pointed out by Stephen Scobie, has explored the harmonious duality of lyric and music. In Alias Bob Dylan Scobie quotes Clement:A double, inseparable scene: the words give rise to the music and the music develops the language, gives it dialect, envelops it, thwarts or reinforces it. Conscious and unconscious: the words are aligned with the legible rational side of a conscious discourse, and the music is the unconscious of the text, that which gives it depth of field and relief, that which attributes a past to the text, a memory, one perceptible not to the listener’s consciousness but to his enchanted unconsciousness (qtd. in Scobie 5).Because Dylan has the means to add dimension to his words with the aid of music, or conversely his music with the aid of words, he is able to employ both the conscious and unconscious in his work. His songs could be compared to Literature as sculptures to paintings or photos; it is the same principle of dimensionality. This is not to say that Dylan’s lyrics cannot stand triumphantly on their own without the aid of music, because they most certainly can, but they would be missing a dimension. Literature has its own aspects of conscious and unconscious realms, especially when viewing it in terms of its intertexuality, something that Dylan’s work certainly demonstrates. What is being suggested is that a new literary genre has come to the surface, in which, because of recording technology, a new dimension can be added to Literature. This is to say that the sound sense of the music and words working together can be preserved by the artist in a way which brings the ear into play and conveys a deeper look into the work as a whole, conscious and unconscious. A new stage has been built, it’s time for everyone to turn their heads, open their eyes, and their ears.

III. ‘My trip hasn't been a pleasant one, And my time it isn't long . . .’

A song is spatial; it occupies a space and Time. The concept of Time has been something prevalent in Dylan’s work. As Robert Forryan suggests, ‘ Dylan appears to be a Time-obsessed or Time-haunted man; at least, if we can judge this from his lyrics’ (51). Dylan’s treatment of Time has evolved over the years. The young Dylan addressed Time with rebellious indignation, exemplified in ‘Restless Farewell,’ from his 1964 album The Times They Are A-Changin’.

Oh a false clock tries to tick out my time
To disgrace, distract and bother me.
And the dirt of gossip blows into my face,
And the dust of rumors covers me.
But if the arrow is straight,
And the point is slick,
It can pierce through dust no matter how thick.
So I'll make my stand
And remain as I am
And bid farewell and not give a damn (Restless Farewell 40-49).

The young Dylan is taking a stand against decaying Time and its appendages. This contrasts what Time has become to the fifty-six year old Dylan in 1997. The mature Dylan has seen it all, and perhaps realizes that Time’s course is unalterable; Death is the inevitable destination no matter what detour anyone takes. It seems Dylan is now concerned with the journey that takes place when that no-longer-false clock does indeed tick out his time. As he states:

I been all around the world, boys
Now I'm trying to get to heaven before they close the door
(Tryin’ to Get to Heaven 31-32).

This brings us to the subject of Dylan’s ‘Not Dark Yet,’ and its seeming resignation to the course Time dictates for existence. For the purposes of explicating this masterpiece the literary qualities and prosody of the song will be primarily focused upon, because it is the intertexuality of the song which places Dylan among the poets and, as Eliot said, ‘set him, for contrast and comparison, among the dead.’ The actual sound of Dylan’s vocal performance and the song’s musical arrangement will also be called into play when appropriate, because the idea of Time in ‘Not Dark Yet’ is expressed by both the lyrics and music. In this case the officially released version of the song on Dylan’s 1997 album Time Out of Mind will be considered. ‘Not Dark Yet’ is a song so it could be considered as a lyric poem. Because the lyric is a performed song, the only way to do it justice is to consider it as having a quantitative meter. The music underneath the lyrics provides a rhythmic beat, which is the actual meter of the song. Dylan’s vocals also suggest this because of the emphasis put on certain words with prolonged or shortened vowel sounds. They work with and against the constant meter of the music to accentuate words which strengthen the theme of the song. For instance, sustaining the long vowel sounds of the last word of every line signifies the progression of Time. And it is time that is the essence of this song.The song opens by placing the speaker alone in the shadow of late afternoon:

Shadows are falling and I’ve been here all day
It’s too hot to sleep and time is running away

On the surface it seems that the speaker has been in one place for the entire day, uncomfortably so, due to the heat. The concept of time is immediately invoked by placing the narrator in a ‘day’ and further referring to Time itself. An interesting fact recognized by Christopher Ricks is that there are twenty-four lines to this song, which symbolizes the twenty-four hour time period of day. It becomes apparent from the beginning that Time will play an important role in the unfolding of the song. The placid musical accompaniment at the opening of the song, which continues at nearly the same pace throughout, seems to suggest the speaker is in a mood of contemplation, with an air of resignation. Dylan’s vocals place a caesura approximately at the halfway point of every line, which demonstrates the mood of contemplation. At the same time these aural effects reinforce a feeling that time is passing at its own pace, out of the speaker’s control. For the speaker ‘time is running away,’ ‘ticking out his time.’ Forryan points out the similarity of Dylan’s opening lines and Marvell’s:

But at my back I alwaies hear
Time’s winged Charriot hurrying near:
And yonder all before us lye
Deserts of vast Eternity (52).

These lines are strikingly similar; even though time is ‘running away’ in Dylan’s and ‘hurrying near’ in Marvell’s, they express the same idea of time coming to an end, an idea which can be seen in even greater detail as the song progresses. At first glance it appears that the speaker is merely contemplating his life, but, although it remains on the individual level, the song starts to hint at something on a much grander scale in the next three lines.

Feel like my soul has turned into steel
I’ve still got the scars that the sun didn’t heal
There’s not even room enough to be anywhere

The internal rhyme of ‘feel’ and ‘steel’ in line 3 isolates the speaker’s soul, which has hardened to steel, perhaps to life’s pleasures or failures. This effect identifies the speaker as feeling alienated from the rest of the humanity he mentions in the following verse. At this point the focus is still on the individual. The same technique of internal rhyme can be seen in line 5, where ‘room’ is boxed in by ‘there’ and ‘anywhere,’ which also conveys isolation while at the same time showing the helplessness of the speaker to move or act upon whatever he sees as impending. Also, the phrase ‘not even room enough’ suggests that there is not ‘time enough;’ it appears that the speaker is immanently close to some foregone conclusion. Both lines 3 and 5 build with observation and a slight tempo change in the music and vocal emphasis, as if the speaker believes he has a way to maybe understand and break free from the situation, but inevitably he fails. He is brought back to reality with lines 4 and 6, where the rhythm returns to normal and he concedes in defeat. This technique occurs in all four verses, constantly reminding the speaker that he is indeed trapped. In line 4 he sees that he is still hindered by his past, or ‘scars’ and cannot possibly change. Line 6 defeats all hope due to its inevitability:

It’s not dark yet, but it’s getting there

This line is the refrain of the song and comes at the end of each verse. Although it is a refrain, it has more meaning to it than just a usual characteristic of a song. It says the end isn’t here, but it IS coming. The fact that this line reoccurs after every verse emphasizes the fact that it WILL get there. This is what is truly plaguing the speaker and what propels his thoughts, just as it propels the song and represents the constancy of Time.The word ‘scars’ in line 4 opens another door to interpretation that is built upon in the following verses. Dylan has used the word ‘scars’ five different times in other songs, four of which embody an alienation similar to that of the speaker’s. In one instance Dylan writes: If you don't believe there's a price for this sweet paradise, remind me to show you the scars (Where Are You Tonight? 32). Using this line as a reference we can see a biblical allusion come to surface in line 4, since ‘paradise’ alludes to the Garden of Eden and is associated with ‘scars’ in ‘Where Are You Tonight?’ Man being expelled from Eden certainly calls into play the speaker’s feeling of isolation and the dejection which is apparent in the next verse. Also, ‘the sun’ did not heal his ‘scars.’ Punning on ‘sun’ with ‘Son’ carries this allusion even further, where Jesus was not able to fully heal the ‘scars’ or sinful nature of mankind. With the beginning of the next verse we see that the speaker is not merely implicating himself in his thoughts. Humanity comes into consideration:

Well my sense of humanity has gone down the drain
Behind every beautiful thing there’s been some kind of pain

Indeed, humanity does become implicated in his contemplation, but in terms of his own view of humanity. It is apparent that this is not a flattering view, after all his sense or feelings of humanity have gone down the drain. Once again alienation is felt in the speaker’s tone because he is setting himself apart from humanity with his statement. The speaker continues in line 8, seemingly indicting humanity for having a darker side, which is covered up by beautiful things. This parallels the speaker’s soul turning into steel, because humanity’s covering up of pain seems to suggest that humanity’s soul has also become hardened or corrupted. The contrast between pain and beauty can be felt in the speaker’s tone, for he is a part of the humanity he is indicting. This line can be considered an aphorism, making it even more relevant in calling into question the state of humanity, since an aphorism is usually considered to be a general truth. Even though a shift from the individual to the human race can be seen, the next two lines are ambiguously distant from the preceding lines due to the introduction of another individual.

She wrote me a letter and she wrote it so kind
She put down in writing what was in her mind

In the surface it is apparent that ‘she’ is someone who has disappointed or hurt the speaker, possibly setting in train this nihilistic thought process where he sees pain behind ‘every beautiful thing.’ Even though the speaker seems hurt he does not have any hard feelings towards this woman. He recognizes that what she wrote was kind, and absolves her from blame because all she did was write ‘what was in her mind.’ Perhaps we have an Eve to consider with the Adam-like speaker. Interpretation in this matter would make the lines thematically fit a bit more into the scheme of humanity. In the first verse we are introduced to a man, who in the second verse is accompanied by a woman, with the backdrop of all humanity. Speculation as to what the letter says becomes irrelevant primarily because there are no clues and the speaker himself states in the next two lines:

I just don’t see why I should even care

It’s not dark yet, but it’s getting thereThe letter means nothing, the speaker doesn’t see why he should even care because ‘It’s not dark yet but it’s getting there.’ There is something much more foreboding for the speaker, which overshadows any importance of the letter. It is apparent that the speaker sees himself, the woman, and humanity heading for a fall, a judgment that pales everything in comparison. As is seen in the next verse it is the past actions of individuals, including the speaker’s, which become important, but it is the speaker that embodies this individual emphasis for others:

Well I’ve been to London and I’ve been to Gay Paree
I’ve followed the river and I got to the sea
I’ve been down on the bottom of a world full of lies
I ain’t looking for nothing in anyone’s eyes

Here the speaker’s past experiences are mentioned, but they move from a small to large perspective. Lines 13 and 14 suggest movement or traveling, but the more specific destinations of London and Paris progress to the less specific route of an unnamed river traveled to the destination of an unnamed sea. Line 15 further widens the scope, as the speaker states that he’s been ‘down on the bottom of a world full of lies.’ At this point in the song there is a feeling that, even though the speaker is primarily speaking in first person, there are larger implications for the state and future of humanity, which is represented by the ‘world full of lies.’

In fact, every line in the third verse contains ‘I,’ as if the individual is somewhat representing the whole, which could be considered an example of synecdoche, although it is important to remember that the speaker is setting himself apart from the whole because he is an observer. Interestingly, these ‘I’s’ correspond with ‘lies’ and ‘eyes,’ where the subjective ‘I’s’ become part of the whole since ‘eyes’ and ‘lies’ refer to other people. It is obvious that the speaker has seen and done many things, but refuses to look for approval from anyone, especially in a world full of lies. An almost righteous tone begins to make its way into the song. The speaker basically states this himself in the next two lines:

Sometimes my burden is more than I can bear
It’s not dark yet, but it’s getting there

It seems the ‘burden’ the speaker must ‘bear’ is his observations and the righteousness he feels when making these observations. There were hints of this tone in the previous verses, but now it becomes more apparent, especially considering the obvious biblical source for the words in the third verse. We are reminded once again in line 18 that time is progressing and that there is an end in sight for the speaker. In terms of the biblical allusion, it is the setting of the sun, humanity’s final judgment, which is the end.

The biblical source for these words comes from chapter one of Ecclesiastes, which could be considered the main source for the song. There were hints of this tone in the previous verses, but now it becomes more apparent, especially considering the obvious biblical derivation of the words in the third verse. Line 14 corresponds to:

All rivers run into the sea; yet the sea is not full; unto the place from whence the rivers come thither (The Bible Eccles. 1:7).And lines 15 and 16 correspond to:All things are full of labour; man cannot utter it: the eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with seeing (The Bible Eccles. 1:8).

Both of these lines are observations much like those made by the speaker who feels burdened by them, which also corresponds to the speaker of the biblical passage who has done his own observations:

And I gave my heart to seek and search out by wisdom concerning all things that are done under heaven: this sore travail hath God given to the sons of man to be exercised therewith.I have seen all the works that are done under the sun; and behold, all is vanity and vexation of spirit (The Bible Eccles. 1:13-14).

And finally we see the pain of the burden on the speaker as is expressed in Ecclesiastes:

For in much wisdom is much grief: and he that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow (The Bible Eccles. 1:18).

The fact that ‘sun’ is used in verse one of ‘Not Dark Yet’ also reinforces the allusion to Ecclesiastes:

The sun also ariseth, and the sun goeth down, and hasteth to his place where he arose (The Bible Eccles. 1:5)

This quote also embodies what we can now see as the speaker’s conception of time. It continues with or without him, which is something that pains him to understand. This is why ‘it’s not dark yet,’ but the speaker acknowledges that it will ‘get there.’ He will die at some point and there is nothing he can do about it. The idea of time continuing without him is symbolized after this verse by approximately a full minute of instrumental interlude. What’s important is to notice that the rhythm of the music does not change and follows the same chord progression; Time merely continuing at its own pace without the presence of the speaker. This is not the end, yet. The speaker steps back into time for one more verse:

I was born here and I’ll die here against my will
I know it looks like I’m moving, but I’m standing still
Every nerve in my body is so vacant and numb

I can’t even remember what it was I came here to get away fromIt seems the speaker has finally come to terms with the inevitability of his death. He realizes that he is unable to progress. In fact, the entire song has shown the speaker in stasis. The only movements have been in the past. His senses have numbed as if they all went down the drain along with humanity, and his memory has left him. He is left alone trapped in the present, just as his soul was in the first verse. The extreme length, as compared to the length of all the other lines of the song, of line 22, ‘I can’t even remember what it was I came here to get away from’ suggests the passage of time and the inevitability of the speaker’s life because no matter how long the line is he cannot ‘get away’ from it. This line also parallels a line in Ecclesiastes:There is no remembrance of former things; neither shall there be any remembrance of things that are to come with those that shall come after (The Bible Eccles. 1:11).Another religious allusion comes to the surface in this last verse, but it is not Christian, but Jewish. The allusion is from the Talmud, Pirke Avot (Ethics of the Fathers) 4:29, which the line ‘I was born here and I’ll die here against my will’ parallels very closely:

And not let your evil inclination assure you that the grave will be a place of refuge for you  –  for against your will you were created, against your will you were born, against your will you live, against your will you die, and against your will you are destined to give an account before the Supreme King of Kings, the Holy One Blessed be He(qtd. in Ølstrem).

In the last verse final judgment is at hand for the speaker. However, it is not just the speaker who is implicated, but humanity. This can be considered because there have been allusions from two different religions, which seemingly lumps together everyone, no matter what their faith is. The final lines of the song suggest that a very bad end is in store for humanity:

Don’t even hear the murmur of a prayer
It’s not dark yet, but it’s getting there.

The speaker cannot hear any repentance from mankind, much less a ‘murmur of a prayer.’ He could be making a statement on the loss of religious belief or simply stating that people are ignorant of the path that has been taken by humanity. They see that it is not dark, but do not look further to realize that an end will come. For the speaker there is an end, or perhaps the end has come in the speaker’s world. This is signified by the period following the last line. It is the only period in the entire song. The words of the speaker have ceased and the finality of mankind is fittingly represented by a mere dot on a page. Even though the words have stopped Time rolls on with the placid constancy of the musical accompaniment, much like the interlude between verses three and four. Again the music goes uninterrupted for approximately a minute, but this time the speaker does not step back into time. He is gone.

The track on the album may stop after a minute, but there is a feeling that the music still continues whether we hear it or not because, as it is said in Ecclesiastes, ‘neither shall there be any remembrance of things that are to come with those that shall come after.’ The music/Time is always there but the new speaker who will take the place of the last will not have any remembrance of it until the end. One final structural note to the song is its progressive rhyme scheme. This scheme progresses by rhyming couplets, of which none are repeated except for the final two lines of each verse. This signifies once again the passage of time. Once one rhyming pair has expired it is no more; the song continues to progress without any thought to this. The rhyme that does reoccur aids in reminding us that ‘it’s not dark yet, but it’s getting there.’ The reoccurring rhyme parallels the effect that the reoccurring line at the end of each verse creates.

IV. ‘He examines the nightingale’s code . . .’

Christopher Ricks does not go into an in depth explication of ‘Not Dark Yet,’ but, during a radio program celebrating Dylan’s sixtieth birthday, points out the similarities the song shares with Keats’ ‘Ode to a Nightingale’. Ricks has been a long time Dylan admirer and sparked the debate over Keats vs. Dylan approximately thirty years ago. While Ricks doesn’t believe that Keats’ ode is expressively alluded to he does believe ‘Not Dark Yet’ shows remnants of the ode:I believe that Dylan who’s ‘very well read it’s well known,’ knows the famous anthology piece and that he had it in mind, even if not consciously in mind when he created his own re-creation of so much of it. After all he did once rhyme the line ‘he examines the nightingale’s code’ with ‘owed.’Ricks goes on further to point out the similarities in rhyme and phrases. There are approximately twenty instances of word related similarity between the two. Three of the more prominent ones are:

Keats: ‘My heart aches, and a drowsy numbness pains/ My sense’ (1-2)
Dylan: ‘Every nerve in my body is so vacant and numb’ (21)

Keats: ‘Shadows numberless’ (9)
Dylan: ‘Shadows are falling’ (1)

Keats: ‘Over the still stream’ (76) and ‘One minute past and Lethe-wards had sunk:’(4)
Dylan: ‘I followed the river and I got to the sea’ (14)

The last similarity shown above is interesting when considering Dylan’s use of ‘river’ and Keats’ ‘Lethe-wards.’ Reading Dylan’s ‘river’ in light of Keats adds even more foreboding of death to ‘Not Dark Yet’ and can also work with the fact that Dylan’s speaker cannot remember what he was trying to get away from, since the River Lethe causes memory loss.

While these are striking similarities between the words, there are also similarities between Keats’ style and Dylan’s in ‘Not Dark Yet.’ Keats’ idea of ‘negative capability’ is demonstrated in this song. This terms is defined by Keats as:That is when man is capable of being in uncertainties, Mysteries, doubts, without any irritable reaching after fact & reason (889)‘Not Dark Yet’ demonstrates a very objective poet in Dylan. While the speaker of the song is making his observations, he does so unforcingly. The witness is not told what to think by Dylan. The speaker isn’t even forcing his views on us, he even says to himself ‘I just don’t see why I should even care.’ Dylan is in the midst of the ultimate ‘Mystery’ in the song, yet he does not appear irritable in searching for reason. Even the music suggests a type of serenity in the face of such a large question. It’s as if the older Dylan is as indifferent as the pre-Born Again Dylan who said:

If dogs run free, then what must be,
Must be, and that is all. (If Dogs Run Free 17-18)

To Keats this type of indifference, this stepping away from the work, not letting the writer’s thoughts and feelings hinder the work is what makes a true poet. It is true that Dylan does include much of his personal life and beliefs in his work but it rarely interferes with the work itself, it strengthens it. One last interesting thing Ricks points out is that ‘Ode to a Nightingale’ begins with the phrase ‘My heart aches,’ which is uncannily foreboding of the heart disease that struck Dylan after the release of Time Out of Mind.

V. ‘I got new eyes . . .’

‘Not Dark Yet’ has been played live approximately 102 times since its release in 1997. When looking at Dylan’s work from a critical view we must remember that we are only looking at one representation of the work. Not only does Dylan revamp the musical arrangement of every song night after night, but he also changes the structure and sometimes words of the actual lyrics. His text is ever changing, which means interpretation can also change. It is important though not to feel as though we cannot proceed in an academic interpretation of his work. Of the 102 performances, it is most likely that every one is available in one form or another. The opportunities for study are endless. My Interpretation of ‘Not Dark Yet’ is only a part of what can be studied in regards to this song, and only a miniscule piece of a puzzle that should be scrutinized not just by loyal fans but everyone, including the academic realm. ‘Not Dark Yet’ is one of Dylan’s masterpieces, but there are so many more. It would be hard to deny that these works are deserving of consideration when, just looking at this particular song, a wealth of meaningful interpretation can arise. It would be wrong to deny this interpretation on the basis that the work is of a medium other than literature. Forms of literature have changed drastically over the years. Why not consider Dylan’s unique form of literature as part of this tradition. To put it in Keatsian terms:

‘Literature is music, music literature,’ – that is all
Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.

Works Cited

Abrams, M. H., ed. The Norton Anthology of English Literature, Volume2. 7th ed. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2000.
Keats, John. ‘Ode to a Nightingale.’ Abrams 849-51.Keats, John. ‘To George and Thomas Keats.’ Abrams 889-90.
Betts, Hannah. ‘Dylan at 60 – Is he Verse or Worse?’
The Times (London) 19 May 2001:  Features.‘Dylan Among the Poets.’
The Sunday Feature. Host Christopher Ricks. BBC  Broadcasting House. BBC Radio 3, London. 11 Feb. 2001.
Dylan, Bob. ‘Ballad of a Thin Man.’ Highway 61. New York: Special Rider Music,  1965.
Dylan, Bob. ‘If Dogs Run Free.’ New Morning. New York: Special Rider Music, 1970.
Dylan, Bob. ‘Restless Farewell.’ The Times They Are A-Changin’. New York: Special Rider Music, 1964.
Dylan, Bob. Time Out of Mind. New York: Special Rider Music, 1997.‘Tryin to Get to Heaven.’ Track 5.‘Not Dark Yet.’ Track 7.
Dylan, Bob. ‘Where Are You Tonight?’ Street Legal. New York: Special Rider Music, 1978.
Forryan, Robert. ‘Time.’ Freewheelin’ Quarterly 22 (Jan 2002): 51-58.Leitch, Vincent B., ed. The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism. New York: W. W.  Norton & Company, Inc. 2001.
Eliot, T. S. ‘Tradition and the Individual Talent.’ Leitch 1092-98.
Ølstrem, Eyolf. My Back Pages. ‘Not Dark Yet.’ <http://www.dylanchords.com.>
Rosenbaum, Ron. ‘Bob Dylan: A candid conversation with the visionary whose songs changed the times.’ Playboy March 1978:
<http://www.interferenza.com/bcs/interw/ play78.htm.>Scobie, Stephen. Alias Bob Dylan. Alberta: Red Deer College Press, 1991.The Holy Bible. New York: The Gideons International. 1982.