Critical Essay | Critical Essay by David Monaghan

Critical Essay by David Monaghan

SOURCE: Monaghan, David. “Taking Bob Dylan Seriously: The Wasteland Tradition.” English Quarterly 6, no. 2 (Summer 1973): 165-70.

In the following essay, Monaghan asserts that the songs of Bob Dylan, while remaining at the center of popular culture, also belong within the tradition of twentieth-century literature. Monaghan analyses Dylan's song “Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues,” noting that it bears the influence of T. S. Eliot’s poems.

Gi; “just Like Tom Thumb's Blues” =~ S“just Like Tom Thumb's Blues”

When you're lost in the rain in Juarez, And it's Easter time too, And your gravity fails And negativity won't pull you through, Don't put on any airs when you're down on Rue Morgue Avenue, They've got some hungry women there, And they'll really make a mess out of you.

Now, if you see St. Annie, Please tell her “Thanks a lot,” I cannot move, my fingers are all in a knot. I don't have the strength to get up And take another...
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