Bob Dylan

1. Oh, where have you been, my blue-eyed son?
2. Oh, where have you been, my darling young one?
3. I’ve stumbled on the side of twelve misty mountains
4. I’ve walked and I’ve crawled on six crooked highways
5. I’ve stepped in the middle of seven sad forests
6. I’ve been out in front of a dozen dead oceans
7. I’ve been ten thousand miles in the mouth of a graveyard
8. And it’s a hard, and it’s a hard, it’s a hard, and it’s a hard
9. And it’s a hard rain’s a-gonna fall

10. Oh, what did you see, my blue-eyed son?
11. Oh, what did you see, my darling young one?
12. I saw a newborn baby with wild wolves all around it
13. I saw a highway of diamonds with nobody on it
14. I saw a black branch with blood that kept drippin’
15. I saw a room full of men with their hammers a-bleedin’
16. I saw a white ladder all covered with water
17. I saw ten thousand talkers whose tongues were all broken
18. I saw guns and sharp swords in the hands of young children

19. And it’s a hard, and it’s a hard, it’s a hard, it’s a hard
20. And it’s a hard rain’s a-gonna fall
21. And what did you hear, my blue-eyed son?
22. And what did you hear, my darling young one?
23. I heard the sound of a thunder, it roared out a warnin’
24. Heard the roar of a wave that could drown the whole world
25. Heard one hundred drummers whose hands were a-blazin’
26. Heard ten thousand whisperin’ and nobody listenin’
27. Heard one person starve, I heard many people laughin’
28. Heard the song of a poet who died in the gutter
29. Heard the sound of a clown who cried in the alley
30. And it’s a hard, and it’s a hard, it’s a hard, it’s a hard
31. And it’s a hard rain’s a-gonna fall

32. Oh, who did you meet, my blue-eyed son?
33. Who did you meet, my darling young one?
34. I met a young child beside a dead pony
35. I met a white man who walked a black dog
36. I met a young woman whose body was burning
37. I met a young girl, she gave me a rainbow
38. I met one man who was wounded in love
39. I met another man who was wounded with hatred
40. And it’s a hard, it’s a hard, it’s a hard, it’s a hard
41. It’s a hard rain’s a-gonna fall

42. Oh, what’ll you do now, my blue-eyed son?
43. Oh, what’ll you do now, my darling young one?
44. I’m a-goin’ back out ’fore the rain starts a-fallin’
45. I’ll walk to the depths of the deepest black forest
46. Where the people are many and their hands are all empty
47. Where the pellets of poison are flooding their waters
48. Where the home in the valley meets the damp dirty prison
49. Where the executioner’s face is always well hidden
50. Where hunger is ugly, where souls are forgotten
51. Where black is the color, where none is the number
52. And I’ll tell it and think it and speak it and breathe it
53. And reflect it from the mountain so all souls can see it
54. Then I’ll stand on the ocean until I start sinkin’
55. But I’ll know my song well before I start singin’
56. And it’s a hard, it’s a hard, it’s a hard, it’s a hard
57. It’s a hard rain’s a-gonna fall

The opening verse begins with the question “where have you been?”, which the “blue-eyed son” proceeds to answer enumerating desolate landscapes, mainly natural, such as “sad forests”(5) and “dead oceans”(6), appealing to the literature topic locus eremus. The view given is the one of an apocalyptic world, a constant subject throughout the piece. 

Following the second question,”what did you see?”(10), our main character tells us about different elements and people he has witnessed. Although one does not instantly match it with the first verse, we can find a lot of connections. The “wild wolves”(12) take us to the “twelve misty mountains”(3), the “highway of diamonds”(13) could be one of the “six crooked highways”(4), the “black branch”(14) belongs to a tree, therefore we think about the “seven sad forests”(5), and the mention to water takes us back to the “dozen dead oceans”(6). We also find the word “tongues”(17), related to “mouth”(7) in the first verse. The last line is clearly about death-“mouth of a graveyard”-(7), a similar idea being found in also the last line of the second verse with the kids who are armed(18).  Now we have a connection with every line of the first verse, but we still have a line of the second verse that looks independent: “I saw a room full of men with their hammers a-bleedin’”(15) Again we will have to listen to the next verse to match it. 

The third verse is preceded by “what did you hear?”(21). The first line refers to a giant wave that “could drown the whole world”(24), and we remember that in the second verse there was a “white ladder all covered in water”(16). This could be a reference to the mythical ladder to heaven, always represented in white color, and symbolizing that even the entrance to heaven has been affected by this apocalypse. Next, we hear “one hundred drummers whose hands were a blazin’”(25), and one can not help but to note the similarity in terms of sound between “drummers” and “hammers” and “a-blazin’” and “a-bleedin’”(6), which finds a connection to our lost line. The drummers are a reference to one of the oldest ways of communication that man has, back when they were used to send messages from one village to another. Them having their hands “a-blazin’”(25) means they are continuingly trying to communicate, just like in the next line there are “ten thousand whisperin’ and nobody listenin’”(26), both being failed attempts of communication. The song follows with more tragic sceneries, such as a person starving to death while others ironically are laughing and a poet who dies in the gutter(28), most likely alone and without being heard. The verse ends with a clown crying(29), who is heartbroken because he should be making children laugh, what as we have seen before, they are fighting at a war (“I saw guns and sharp swords at the hands of young children”, also the last line of its verse).

“Who did you meet?”(32) is the fourth question that is asked, and probably has the more confusing answers. It is not simple to declare exactly what it means, but this is my idea. The “white man”(35) could be the baby that had wolves around him that has grown into a man who now sees the wolves as just a “black dog”(35) and the power has shifted, he once was the helpless baby surrounded by wild animals and now he is a man that has tamed them. A contraposition regarding age is seen in the next two lines, where we see the innocence and purity of a young girl “she gave me a rainbow”(37) contrasted with the brutality of a woman that is burning(36). We then have two men who have been wounded, one by love(38) and the other by hatred(39), again two opposed  ideas, one being the more “pure” that is love. This verse also contains a kid next to a “dead pony”, that reinforces the idea of innocence and cruelty colliding. 

The fifth and final verse begins with the only question that does not refer to the past, but rather a future action “what’ll do you now?”(42). The answer evokes the elements of the first verse: “deepest black forests”(45), “mountain”(53), “ocean”(54)… meaning that the main character decides to go back to where he has been before, this time giving a more detailed description of the region. Poverty is referenced in “the people are many and the hands are all empty”(46), and we find another mention to the person that was starving while others were laughing in”where hunger is ugly”(50). As for “the pellets of poison are flooding their waters”(47), Dylan himself explained that it refers to “all the lies that people get told on their radios and in their newspapers”. This statement not only reveals the meaning of one particular line, but establishes that the song is indeed talking about the world and society we live in, at least back in the 1960s. Following the same concept, “the executioner’s face is always well hidden”(49) can be easily matched with the idea that politicians or simply people with higher positions and power are the ones who commit atrocities even if they are not judged by the public eye. This is a matter that Dylan digs into in another song that is praised for its exposure of powerful men, Masters of war, which belongs to the album The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan as well. The narrator concludes stating that he will tell the world what he has witnessed “so all souls can see it”(53), but continues saying that he will “stand on the ocean until I start sinkin’”(54). This gives us the idea that nobody will believe him, leaving him to drown while the inevitable happens. Furthermore, reading a second time “my song”(55) in the final line before the chorus reminisces about “the song of a poet who died in the gutter”(28), and leaves us presuming that he himself might be the poet that he was talking about that is doomed to die alone with no one considering his words. A comparison can be made between the main character of the song and Cassandra, the character in Greek mythology that could see the future but was cursed so that nobody would believe her. 

This is not the only literary reference we find in the song. “a newborn baby with wild wolves all around it”(12) has the exact same concept as The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling, and “a black branch with blood that kept drippin’”(14) is a reference to Inferno, the first part of the narrative poem Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri, where the character Dante snaps a branch from a tree that proceeds to cry in pain and bleed.

From a structural point of view, we see that all lines in each verse start almost identical with each other, predominating the anaphora and parallelism. The constant enumeration, being a stichomythia, mimics the drops of water falling during the rain, drawing a relation between the song title and its lyrical construction.

Summarizing, the song depicts an apocalyptic world that is actually present day Earth, therefore the lyrics criticize our society and announce an inescapable fate that is dark and hopeless. The elements losing its function are constant, such as the ladder that is covered in water and no longer usable, the talkers who have broken tongues and therefore are not able to speak or the clown who is crying instead of making children laugh, as well as the various oppositions of ideas that are pure and others that are desolate, reinforcing the main theme of misery and suffering. Although Bob Dylan is widely regarded as a popular singer, his lyrics show refined language and references, and while his message is clear and easy to get by everyone, understanding each composition requires a more mature literature background. This song is a great example of what made Dylan such an icon, from the prominent and elaborated lyrics to a powerful message that everyone could relate to and made them think.