Bob Dylan Vs. Robert Hass
Mike Zwerin over on Bloomberg.com tries to make the case that Bob Dylan should be winning a Pulitzer for poetry rather than a special citation. I was in mid-scoff (yes, I love the Dylan, but it’s hard enough for poets to get attention without competing with Bob) until he made this rather good point via writer Rafi Zabor: “Even the poet we call Homer, who if he existed, sang his epics.” Sure, the singing was a way to remember their epic poems since they weren’t jotted down in a moleskin travel-size notebook, but perhaps the line between song and poetry can be blurred. Can Dylan’s lyrics stand up to the lines of Robert Hass, who just won a Pulitzer for Poetry? Let’s see…
From Hass’ “Heroic Simile”:
“A man and a woman walk from the movies/to the house in the silence of separate fidelities./There are limits to imagination.”
Vs.
From Dylan’s “It Ain’t Me, Babe”:
“Go melt back into the night, babe/Everything inside is made of stone./There’s nothing in here moving/An’ anyway I’m not alone.”
From Hass’ “Ezra Pound’s Proposition” :
“Beauty is sexual and sexuality/Is the fertility of the earth and the fertility/Of the earth is economics.”
Vs.
From Dylan’s “Tangled Up in Blue”:
“I had a job in the great north woods/Working as a cook for a spell/But I never did like it all that much/And one day the ax just fell.”
You decide.
4 Responses to “Bob Dylan Vs. Robert Hass”
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April 11th, 2008 at 12:58 pm
Speaking of “Tangled up in Blue”,
Then she opened up a book of poems
And handed it to me
Written by an Italian poet
From the thirteenth century.
And every one of them words rang true
And glowed like burnin’ coal
Pourin’ off of every page
Like it was written in my soul from me to you,
Tangled up in blue.
Don’t his songs do the same thing as the 13th century poet? I think they do them better.
Take his newer work…
They say prayer has the power to heal
So pray for me, mother
In the human heart an evil spirit can dwell
I am a-tryin’ to love my neighbor and do good unto others
But oh, mother, things ain’t going well
From “Aint Talkin’” on Modern Times.
What a great debate topic though.
April 11th, 2008 at 5:31 pm
Ray Bradbury got a Pulitzer citation last year, another under-rated artist.
http://notionscapital.wordpress.com/2008/04/07/dylans-pulitzer/
On the other hand, the “Citations” might be going to artists the Pulitzer Board admired back when they were undergraduates. Have you seen the board members?
http://www.pulitzer.org/CurrentBoard/boardphotosma.jpg
Enough said.
April 13th, 2008 at 11:29 am
From Hass’s “The Problem of Describing Trees”:
The aspen is doing something in the wind.
From Dylan:
The answer is blowin’ in the wind
April 17th, 2008 at 8:04 pm
I was totally taken aback by this announcement regarding Dylan and Pulitzer. But certainly well deserved.
I don’t know if you were reporting on the news (and good news it is) or are actually a fan, but if you are then I thought I’d introduce you to my new novel, BLOOD ON THE TRACKS, which I think you’d enjoy.
It’s a murder-mystery. But not just any rock superstar is knocking on heaven’s door. The murdered rock legend is none other than Bob Dorian, an enigmatic, obtuse, inscrutable, well, you get the picture…
Suspects? Tons of them. The only problem is they’re all characters in Bob’s songs.
You can get a copy on Amazon.com or go “behind the tracks” at http://www.bloodonthetracksnovel.com to learn more about the book.