Blood on the Tracks: Dylan's Lyrical Sequence

A lyrical sequence is a remarkably consistent genre, with regards to its internal tone, theme, and point of view. It’s rare to find a modern musical album that is as homogeneous. Bob Dylan’s Blood on the Tracks is not entirely in the first person, like Sideny’s Astrophil and Stella or Spenser’s Amoretti. However, most of the songs do share the first person perspective of those lyrical sequences. More importantly though, Dylan’s album shares themes: first person or not, the songs deal with the difficulty of love and of a love falling apart. Unlike many lyrical sequences, the narrators in Dylan’s songs don’t appear to be the same person, but their melancholy tone and deep sadness is the same. Blood on the Tracks is a lyrical sequence in a way because all the songs address the same issues of an old lover, the desire to regain love, and the sadness of time apart slipping by.

*Dylan played with point of view a lot on this album and in this version he uses "he" and "they" instead of "I" and "we." But the original album version of the song is first person.

I couldn't find good videos on youtube, but I also recommend: "You're Going to Make Me Lonesome When You Go," "You're a Big Girl Now," "Simple Twist of Fate," "If You See Her, Say Hello,"

"The Wanderer": Poetry in Transition

The broad selection of poems we read this week represents, in several important ways, a transition in English language poetry from narrative poems to poems more concerned with the internal struggle of characters. In these lyrical poems less emphasis is placed on story and more on mind-set. “The Wanderer,” is in itself a self contained demonstration of this larger shift in poetic style. The Norton Anthology gives no date for the poem, because no date is known, but we know it was written before any of the other poems we read, with the possible exception of “The Wife’s Lament.” Thus, the change is not yet fully developed and “The Wanderer,” is a combination, in narrative style and content, of the Beowulf style of the poetry and the one that would come to dominate in the 16^th century with the work of poets like Thomas Wyatt and Henry Howard.

“The Wanderer,” is clearly a poem that deals heavily with the internal, emotional struggles of a single character. The poem’s main speaker outlines the feelings his recent hardships are causing him, “Then the wounds are deeper in his heart, sore for want of his dear one,” (112). However, the poem also has narrative elements to it, “…removed from my homeland, far from dear kinsmen…ever since that time, many years ago, that I covered my gold-friend in the darkness of the earth; and from there I crossed the woven waves, winter-sad, downcast for want of a hall, sought a giver of treasure,” (112). It isn’t the kind of well-defined story apparent in Beowulf or other more clearly narrative poems, but it also is a lot more than the typical lyrical poems where a vague, implied love affair is the only story.

The poem’s interesting narrative style is also evidence of the changing poetic style at the time. The lyrical genre of poetry that was to become popular was mostly characterized by the use of first person narration. At first glance, “The Wanderer,” follows this pattern. However, it doesn’t quite. The majority of the poem is the internal monologue of single character, but that character is not the poem’s narrator, and all his thoughts are set off by quotations. The poem’s narrator sets this up in the second paragraph, “So spoke the earth-walker, remembering hardships, fierce war-slaughters- the fall of dear kinsmen,” (112). This single sentence, along with the three concluding sentences, also delivered by the poem’s narrator, set us one extra step apart from “the earth-walker,” the poem is about. This poem then, while it feels like a first-person poem, isn’t there just yet.

Even when “the earth-walker,” is speaking he seems reluctant to use the pronoun “I.” Instead, he spends a majority of the poem discussing the emotions of a hypothetical man in an identical situation, “He who has experienced it knows how cruel a companion sorrow is to the man who has no beloved protectors,” (112). This separation of the characters and the emotions, and the even further separation of the narrator from the emotions is essentially the gap that still remained between “The Wanderer,” and the internal, first person poems of the future.

A Double Consciousness: Christianity in Beowulf

We don’t know much about the man who wrote Beowulf. We do know that he was a Christian, living in a recently converted Christian community, and telling an inherently Pagan story. As a result the poem has what can be described as a double consciousness to it. Although the poet was a Christian, he was able to display the differing values of Germanic Paganism and Christianity without passing judgment on the older system. Part of what allowed him to do this so successfully was that he turned many of the story’s main characters into natural Christians, men who, although nominally Pagan, often speak and act like Christians.

The values of Germanic society are presented in Beowulf even though they often contradict Christian values. The poem, mirroring Pagan society, values physical strength and courage in its citizens. Throughout the poem Beowulf is respected for possessing these characteristics. Upon arriving in Hrothgar’s kingdom, Beowulf is confronted by the lookout, who says, “Nor have I seen/ a mightier man-at-arms on this earth/ than the one standing here: unless I am mistaken/ he is truly noble,” (247-250)*. Before Beowulf even spoke the lookout made positive assumptions about his character, assumptions that don’t fit in a Christian world that believes, “Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth.” The poem also puts a high value on gold and treasure, which are not merely sources of wealth but measurements of a man’s honor. Beowulf is given gifts after each victory and these gifts become symbols of his glory, a far cry from “Blessed are the poor for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” The greatest discrepancy between the Pagan values presented and Christian values is with regards to revenge and forgiveness. Whereas Jesus taught to turn the other cheek, in Germanic society it was necessary to maintain honor that any killing be avenged. After Grendel’s mother kills Aeschere, Beowulf advises Hrothgar “It is always better/ to avenge dear ones than to indulge in mourning,” (1384-1385).

What truly gives Beowulf its double consciousness then is the fact that the poet is able to accurately portray the pre-Christian Germanic world without letting his own Christian beliefs, which are ever present, force him into judgments. What made this achievable for the author was that he endowed his Pagan characters with Christian respectability. He made it clear early on that his characters are not Christians. He describes the way they worshiped at “pagan shrines” (175) and explained “The Almighty Judge/ of good deeds and bad, the Lord God,/ Head of the Heaven and the High King of the World,/ was unknown to them,” (180-183). Nonetheless, the main characters often speak like Christians. Upon seeing Grendel’s severed arm Hrothgar says, “First and foremost, let the Almighty Father/ be thanked for this sight,” (927-928). Beowulf does the same thing, often addressing praise and requests to a single, seemingly monotheistic God. Hrothgar and Beowulf are both also presented as rulers who act in the best interest of their people, with genuine concern and compassion. So, although they are far from perfect Christians, they are even further from sinful, barbaric Pagans. The poet presented his characters with these Christian aspects as a way to soften the Pagan elements of their characters and to avoid the necessity of being overtly critical of the Pagan society he wrote about.

*All citations refer to numbers from the version of Beowulf that appears in The Norton Anthology: English Literature.

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