“If poetry were nothing but texture, [Dylan] Thomas would be as good as any poet alive. The what of his poems is hardly essential to their success, and the best and most brilliantly written pieces usually say less than the worst.” IfsWould BePiecesAliveWrittenWorstPoetEssentialsDylanTexture Author:Randall Jarrell
“I would say, from an all-around point of view, Bruce Springsteen is one of the two great poet lords of America, Bob Dylan, coming out of the music world, the two of them.” WorldTwoAmericaViewsLordPoetPoint Of ViewComing OutBobDylanGreat PoetSpringsteen Author:Clive Davis
“You can't criticize Bob Dylan's singing. You have to respect Billy Joel as a brilliant poet. You can't tell me there's a better rock band ever than Led Zeppelin. And if you speak during the Eagles' "Last Resort," we're done. I'm just asking for seven minutes. This stuff really matters, you know.” IfsKnowsMatterDoneLastsSpeakStuffMinutesRocksPoetBandSingingAskingSevenBrilliantCriticizeBobResortsDylanEaglesRock BandsZeppelins Author:Charlie Sheen
“I always knew that sooner or later there would come somebody like Woody Guthrie who could make a great song every week. Dylan certainly had a social agenda, but he was such a good poet that most of his attempts were head and shoulders above things that I and others were trying to do. ... If I had an address, I'd send him a birthday card saying, 'keep on going.'” IfsTryingSongSocialWeekPoetShouldersCardsAddressesAgendasSooner Or LaterDylanWoodyBirthday Card Author:Pete Seeger
“There are some singer-songwriters who start out as poets. So someone like Leonard Cohen wrote and published poetry in the early 60s, but then started writing songs. Bob Dylan's a poet in the sense of bard, aoidos or vates.” WritingSongPoetSingersBobSongwritersDylanSinger SongwritersWriting SongsBards Author:Richard F. Thomas
“Bob Dylan truly is a poet whose song is part of the poetry.” SongPoetBobDylan Author:Richard F. Thomas
“[I have] my own view about [Bob] Dylan's Nobel prize. Which is, I'm firmly in the Nay camp. I do think the award is a category error, but that's not why. Not in itself. What bothers me is the perceived status of the categories. If pop lyricists were routinely considered for the prize as are authors and poets, I'd still think it mistaken, but I wouldn't much care. But I am quite certain that Joni Mitchell and Leonard Cohen, for example, both at the very least Dylan's equals as writers, have never been in the running and never will be.” IfsThinkingStillsCareRunningCertainMy OwnViewsExamplePoetErrorsPopsBotherPrizeWhy NotAwardsCategoriesCampsBobMistakenDylanNobelNobel PrizeLyricists Author:David Bennun
“[Bob] Dylan's many quotations from classic American roots music (that song is from an album aptly titled Love and Theft) join the aging poet to a tradition that preceded him and hopefully will outlive him as well.” WellsSongPoetTraditionRootsAgingAlbumsHopefullyClassicBobQuotationsDylanTheft Author:Jay Michaelson
“[Bob Dylan] is a preacher but also a sinner; a poet but also a pitchman; authentic all-American but also invented persona.” PoetSinnerBobPreacherDylanPersona Author:Jay Michaelson
“I think the whole emphasis in England, in universities, on practical criticism (but not that so much as on historical criticism, knowing what period a line comes from) this is almost paralysing. In America, in University, we read - what? - T. S. Eliot, Dylan Thomas, Yeats, that is where we began. Shakespeare flaunted in the background. I'm not sure I agree with this, but I think that' for the young poet, the writing poet, it is not quite so frightening to go to university in America as it is in England, for these reasons.” ThinkingWritingReasonWholeAmericaYoungLinesKnowingPoetPeriodsCriticismEnglandAgreeHistoricalUniversityPracticalsBackgroundsNot SureFrighteningEmphasisDylanEliotYeats Author:Sylvia Plath