Bob Dylan: American Poet

Throughout all of Bob Dylan’s career as a poetic figure he has proven time and time again that he perfectly encapsulates the idea of the “hero’s journey” and of using public relations to illustrate the idea of transformation. The “hero's journey” is a pattern of narrative identified by the American scholar Joseph Campbell that appears in drama, storytelling, myth, religious ritual, and psychological development. The “hero’s journey” was first coined by American author Joseph Campbell in his “The Hero with a Thousand Faces”. The “hero’s journey” is described as a hero venturing forward from a common world and into region of unknown wonder. From inside this fabulous world, the hero encounters forces that is overcome with the help of companions and mentors. The hero then fails at a challenge and soon thereafter falls into an abyss of despair, but is then rejuvenated with a new sense of vigor and determination that is sparked on by a transformation. After this transformation, the hero has an atonement and then returns to his common world with new knowledge and gifts from the unknown world. Bob Dylan’s personal life can easily be seen through this lens, and then proven with his poetic works of songs. Campbell also continues to describe the “hero with a thousand faces” which in summary means that despite how many differences between heroes there are, the journey is always the same and therefore the hero is as well. The hero may look differently while on his one thousandth time on the journey, but will nevertheless follow the journey blindly despite what this hero looks like. Campbell describes this as being the reason that archetypal heroes emerge from stories. Bob Dylan cane be considered one of these heroes as he not only goes on his journey but as he also transforms himself continuously. This is even confirmed by Bob Dylan historian Bernard Paturel with his famous quote saying that “There’s so many sides to Bob Dylan, he’s round”. 

The first visible transformation that Bob Dylan shows is his transformation from Robert Zimmerman. Robert Zimmerman was a Jewish middle-class townsfolk from Hibbing Minnesota, but was transformed into Bob Dylan, a Christian lower-class city musician in Greenwich Village. This perfectly encapsulates the first part of the “hero’s journey” as Robert has a call to adventure from being inspired to create music. Robert crosses the threshold between the known and the unknown world both metaphorically and physically. Robert metaphorically transforms as he changes his name to “Bob Dylan” and he physically transforms as he geographically moves to the big city and as he begins dressing up more and more like a hipster beatnik. Years later, Bob Dylan remarks on this transformation as he describes in a Rolling Stone article about the death of Robert Zimmerman. When asked about Robert Zimmerman, Bob Dylan tells the interviewer that Robert Zimmerman was “one of the early presidents of the Berdoo Hell’s Angels”. Dylan follows this by stating that in 1964 he was on a motorcycle ride “when his muffler fell off his bike”. Robert then “whipped a quick U-turn from the front of the pack” while a fellow Hell’s Angel was “hauling-ass” while being “on the wrong side of the road”. Then collision instantly killed Robert, and the rest of the bikers “dragged [his] lifeless body to the side of the road. There was nothing [they] could do but to send somebody on to town for help”. Bob Dylan characterizes this Hell’s Angels president as if it were himself. This fully embodies the idea of transformation as the old Robert Zimmerman not only died but was a completely different person to begin with. This change and transformation is but the first of many as Bob Dylan tries to go out into the world.

Before Dylan can go out into the unknown, though, he must receive and master the supernatural aid that he receives through folk music. This is illustrated in Chronicles as Dylan talks about his poetic journey to find folk music. The poetry is clearly prevalent when one considers that “folk songs are evasive- the truth about life, and life is more or less a lie…” and just like any poem “... that’s exactly the way we want it to be” (Chronicles, 71). It is then understandable that Robert Zimmerman names himself after “Dylan Thomas”, the Welsh poet, for when he’s performing (78). As Dylan continues to master his craft he begins to transform his public image to benefit himself.

Dylan’s next transformation is the physical one into a hipster beatnik. This follows his hero’s journey as this is the supernatural aid that propels him into the unknown world. This transformation of personality is made the first time Dylan listens to Woody Guthrie. Dylan recalls, this in his memoir Chronicles, the magical moment when he was introduced to Guthrie as he listened all “afternoon to Guthrie as if in a trance” because he felt as though he “had discovered some essence of self-command” (Chronicles, 244). Once he heard Guthrie for the first time, Dylan thought “this is the game” as he then proceeded to master all of Guthrie’s songs “every single one of them” and that “they were all that [he] wanted to sing” (244-245). Therefore, Dylan then continued to change his entire style to mimic Woody Guthrie. This also fits Dylan’s journey as he reveals in his “Song to Woody” that Guthrie has been in many ways the mentor that helps him begin this journey. “Song to Woody” pays dues to Woody as being knowing the “funny ol’ world” and that the narrator has not left home yet but is “a-leavin’ tomorrow”. Although this poem shows how the world might be hard it is expressed as someone who has not yet lived it yet as it is “sick… hungry… tired... “ and “torn”. In this sense, Dylan is the speaker as he admits that he has yet to live through the world in the same ways that his mentors and helpers have and that is why he sings “to Cisco an’ Sonny an’ Leadbelly too” as he poetically tells the world that they are the helpers and mentors in his hero’s journey. Dylan takes their advice as he understands that he has not lived in the harsh world that Woody, Cisco, Sonny, and Leadbelly all have gone through.

Dylan explores this harsh world in his poem “A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall”, as Dylan speaks to his young child about the hardships of the world that he has seen and then warns his son just how hard the world can be. The hardships of the world are illustrated with the ending two lines of each verses as the narrator states that “it’s a hard rain’s a-gonna fall”. Each verse begins with the narrator asking his son a question of his life. Each verse deals with a different sense of living in the first two lines, for example the first verse is “where have you been”, the second being “what did you see”, “what did you hear”, “who did you meet”, and finally “what’ll you do”. Each of the beginning two verses represents the innocence of the narrator’s “darling young one”, which juxtaposes to the body of each verse as the narrator teaches his son of the hard world through answering his questions. Each verse has the narrator speaking of where he has been, what he has seen, heard, met, and what he will do that illustrates how hard the world is. He’s been in “sad forests”, seen “blood”, heard “thunder”, met a “dead pony”, but despite all these signs of how bad the world is he will confront the hardships. This is shown when he says that he knows his song before he starts singing, which  illustrates that despite how hard the world may be, he’ll always have a song to sing and he’ll always focus on his life and his journey as he faces those hardships. 

One of these constant hardships that Bob Dylan faces is nostalgia for the older days. Bob Dylan historian, Sean Wilentz describes Dylan’s concerns about the current generation while talking about “Blind Willie McTell” and his thoughts of “salvation, humanity, and old songs” and how the feeling brought upon by the former generations aren’t being replicated by the newer singers and songwriters (Bob Dylan in America, 237). Wilentz goes on to say that Dylan believed those old songs “could keep the world’s power and greed at bay” but they were “doom” as he “might be one of the dwindling last generation of singers to remember and sing them” (237). This sentiment of nostalgia is ever present in Bob Dylan’s song “Blind Willie McTell”. This is clearly evident in the chorus line “... no one can sing the blues, like Blind Willie McTell” that fully expresses Dylan’s idea that things were better back in the day. The whole song itself is almost like a record of the history of the Blues. Each verse throughout the song tells the story of the genre of the Blues from “New Orleans” to “Big plantations” singing about “charcoal gypsy maidens” to “a woman by the river” that have become commonplace in former Blues songs, that are being lost to the newer generation. This idea is alluded to in Dylan’s song “Jokerman” in the line that states that “their futures, so full of dread”. Dylan takes it upon himself to maintain these old songs, and does so academically in his notes to World Gone Wrong. Dylan recalls it as “a Blind Willie McTell masterpiece… that is about trains, mystery on the rails” (245). Dylan also holds Blind Willie McTell’s work to a high standard as he “performs the song as a hushed devotional” (245). Wilentz describes Dylan’s cover of McTell’s work the same way Dylan describes McTell’s work as both are about “variations of human longing” set in “the low hum in meter & syllable” (245). Bob Dylan captures McTell’s voice to allow Blind Willie to speak to the audience. Wilentz continues by saying that “the dead man’s invisible spirit, actually speaks, and for the rest of the song belongs to that voice” (246). Dylan does this by singing “only to his solo guitar strumming,and his voice is muted and tender… his voice becomes the one murmuring at the pilgrim’s grave” (251). Wilentz continues to describe, in detail, the nuances of Dylan’s rendition of McTell’s songs, from the strumming to the swelling of Dylan’s voice during key moments of each song. By doing this, Wilentz portrays Dylan as a type of hero that Dylan describes Guthrie and Willie McTell as. Through this, Dylan portrays himself as the newer generation’s version of Blind Willie McTell, but in doing so he illustrates the next part of the hero’s journey that he undergoes. 

As Dylan conquers the challenges of becoming a star, he soon falls into the abyss that is writer’s block. Dylan describes in Chronicles how in 1987 he was stuck in a serious creative abyss. His “intimacy… was gone”, he “felt done for” and had “no connection to any kind of inspiration” (Dylan, 146-148). Dylan really didn’t know what to do with himself, creatively speaking. He was going through this during his tour with Tom Petty, but it was soon to be his last. Dylan recalls that he was on “autopilot” as he performed his well known songs but didn’t know what else to do, and because of this he was seriously considering retiring after the tour. This makes sense chronologically speaking as it had been four years since he had written and recorded “Jokerman”, one of his more artistic poems, and even admits that he was considered as an old legend, and that being a legend was nice, “but for most people once is enough” (147). Dylan brings this back to his hero’s journey as he transforms himself once more to fight and overcome the abyss. 

Dylan doesn’t retire, though, but rather turns his creative block around and transforms everything about himself again. Through his writings, Dylan offers a very personal introspective account of this defining moment in his life. Dylan purposely decided to share the challenge that was facing him in the manifestation of a broken hand, while wanting to play, because it juxtaposes the recollection of him already playing a tour but facing the obstacle of not having any inspiration for art. As a form of writing, this sets the stage for Dylan to tell the story of how he found his inspiration again through The Grateful Dead’s optimism and a lone Jazz singer’s relaxed “natural power” (150). Dylan recalls the Dead as wanting to perform the seldom performed songs that Dylan had “no feelings for” (149). It was this that forced Dylan to retreat away from the creativity of the band and into the the streets. Dylan wandered around until finding a bar that had a Jazz singer performing for an empty venue. Dylan recalls hearing the singer’s smooth voice that came out of his mouth effortlessly. Dylan, sees this and with a renewed sense of vigor runs back to The Grateful Dead rehearsal hall and begins to use his newly found sense of relaxation to begin performing all of his older work. He became “awake” and now knew that he could “perform any of these songs without them having to be restricted to the world of words” (151). Dylan writes this story as a tale of overcoming the abyss, while in the coming months he finishes the tour with Tom Petty and begins the process to start his own tour. The idea is to remove the old to make way for the new. Dylan was considering his career as a “relic” that only the older crowd liked, but wanted to reach out to younger folks and by finding the “right audience, or for the right audience to find [him]” (154). He was planning on a “three-year schedule” for touring dates for the exact same places so that the older crowd would go the first year, the people interested in the “new” Dylan would go the second, and finally the third year would be the people from the first two that genuinely wanted more of what he was making. That was going to be the crowd he would be going after. Following the hero’s journey, Dylan now uses his renewed vigor to metaphorically return to his known world with the new knowledge he has acquired.

In this sense, Bob Dylan artistically returns to his roots only this time with a completely new style and form. This can best be characterized in his newer music featured in “Working Man Blues Number Two” and in “Mississippi”. In Bob Dylan’s 2001’s song “Mississippi”, Dylan brings to light the nostalgic feeling of an earlier America by harkening back to a simpler and slower time. This is a return to his known world of earlier days when he was still harkening back to earlier times with beatnic styles of folk songs. Dylan completes the hero’s journey by returning to his home with the new knowledge and transformation he has undergone. Dylan returns to the same subject matter of those early days, but now his entire style of music has changed since his early days. “Mississippi” sets out as very different than any of his earlier songs as it starts out with an electric guitar before the synthetic drumming starts up to set the beat for the lyrics, lyrics that are sung much more relaxed and natural than Dylan’s early work. This is completely different than the single acoustic guitar simply strumming along to Guthrie-style vocals. Despite these differences between “Old Dylan” and “New Dylan” there persists a common theme that Dylan has kept for the entirety of his artistic career, and that is to romanticize the culture of blue-collar small town America. 

The sense of nostalgia from longing for the good old days are introduced in the second stanza of “Mississippi” that the “city is a jungle, Trapped in the heart of it, trying to get away, I was raised in the country, I been workin' in the town. I been in trouble ever since I set my suitcase down”. These lyrics’ subject matter is very similar to “House of the Rising Sun”, which is not only a prominent traditional folk song but also one of Dylan’s first songs that he has ever recorded, and released on his first album. The song follows a girl whose “mother was a tailor”, who lives in “New Orleans”, and who has a lover that is an alcoholic gambler. This is similar to the “Mississippi” lyrics as they both illustrate images of small country towns that revolve around the working class, who fall onto hard times. These hard times are further illustrated as Dylan makes the speaker out to be someone who feels trapped and as if they have nothing. This feeling parallels another Dylan classic cover: “Man of Constant Sorrow”. The first two stanzas of “Man of Constant Sorrow” portray the speaker as a “rambling” drifter who had to leave his home. Because of his rambling he has “seen trouble all [his] days”. This parallels the speaker of “Mississippi” as that speaker tells his lover that he has “nothing for you, I had nothing before. Don't even have anything for myself anymore” stating that this speaker has literally nothing to give his love nor even himself. To keep in line with the themes of rambling, the “Mississippi” chorus is that his only crime was that he “stayed in Mississippi a day too long”. This follows the speaker of “Man of Constant Sorrow” who left his home of Colorado and continues to ramble from state to state. It is this imagery of beatnic blue-collar America that Dylan revitalizes in “Mississippi”. This new revitalized Dylan has perfectly captured the old Dylan’s sense of small-town country. This sense is important to note Dylan’s final stage of his hero’s journey. Bob Dylan returns home from the unknown world only with a newer sense of self, as he has transformed himself.

Throughout his career Bob Dylan has continually transformed and re-transformed himself, from the first transformation from Robert Zimmerman to Bob Dylan to the revitalization into the “New” Bob Dylan. Dylan has constantly followed and yearned after this sense of transformation to really find and adapt his poetic identity. This poetic sense of transformation can be easily be summed up with the bible verse from Romans. Romans 12:2 states “be not conformed to this world; but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind”. This sense of transforming not only the body but also transforming the mind can be defined as “transfiguration” or a “renewing of one’s mind in a spiritual sense”. Dylan already treats folk music as a sense of spirituality and so it is reasonable to attribute Dylan’s constant transformation to a spiritual sense of transfiguration as he has changed his spiritual identity throughout his entire life.

So in conclusion, Bob Dylan has transformed himself all throughout his career to fulfill the “hero’s journey”. Zimmerman has a call to adventure with performing music, and receives supernatural aid through the folk genre. Zimmerman transforms himself into a new spiritual identity as Bob Dylan, and thus exhibits the first transfiguration while transfering into the unknown world. Dylan credits Woody Guthrie as his main mentor, and under his guidance is able to overcome artistic obstacles by creating much more abstract poetry by transforming himself from the beatnik subject matter he started with. After shifting to much more artistic works such as “Jokerman” he then sinks into an abyss of depression as his inspiration dries up. Dylan transfigures once more as he overcomes his abyss and returns home. The “New” Dylan returns to his original subject matter with a new style and therefore returns to his known world with the new sense of atonement and transformation. Dylan finishes the hero’s journey and thus exhibits a sense of transfiguration all through his career.

Works Cited

Campbell, Joseph. The Hero with a Thousand Faces. Yogi Impressions, 2017.

Dettmar, Kevin J. H. The Cambridge Companion to Bob Dylan. Cambridge University Press, 2009.

Dylan, Bob. Bob Dylan Chronicles: Volume One. W F Howes, 2005.

Gilmore, Mikal. “Bob Dylan Unleashed.” Rolling Stone, Rolling Stone, 27 Sept. 2012, www.rollingstone.com/music/news/bob-dylan-unleashed-a-wild-ride-on-his-new-lp-and-striking-back-at-critics-20120927.

Wilentz, Sean. Bob Dylan in America. Anchor Books, 2011.