Point of View

“At the Crossroads, Highways 61 and 49” is told from the first-person point of view using the pronoun “I”. The speaker is addressing a secondary character within the world of this poem, and the first-person point of view puts the reader in the place of this Mister Johnson — as if the speaker is talking to them directly. Even though the speaker is talking to someone, they often turn the narrative back towards their own appeal. It’s in these segments that the “Mister Johnson” refrain disappears, as if the speaker has briefly become lost in singing their own praises. The only place where the poem fully focuses on this external second character is in the closing line: “I thank you for your soul” (Line 40), seemingly to remind Mister Johnson that he has made his own choice of his own free will.

Language and Meaning

The language of...