[R. S. Gwynn]

With all due respect to the man who pushed Tim Murphy in his stroller and to Henry Timrod, here it is:

Subterranean Timrod Blues

Sleep sweetly, martyrs
Men of the tall hearts
Now are NASCAR starters
Shopping in the Wal-Marts
See the pausing pilgrim
Cotton mill, sitting still
Say it's a bitter pill
Too much time to kill
Seeds of laurel
Looking for a quarrel
Fame is blown
Now you're on your own
Yet no marble column craves
Country ham to the bone
The man in the gimme cap
In the extreme zone
Needs a bunch of big bills
Small tributes, make a loan

Blossom of your big fame
Flowers in a red flame
Stoop, angels, hither
Watch magnolias wither
Shaft is in the stone
Blossom of your fame is blown
Leave that girl alone
Cooking up the cornpone
Seeds of laurel
It's your quarrel
No holier spot of ground
Can be found around
For a penny or a pound
Listen to the bugles sound
Where the graves abound
Every one a dirty mound
Somewhere waiting for its birth
By mourning beauty crowned

Stoop, angels, hither from
Bugle, fife, and drum
Some come, a small sum
Less than a single crumb
Shades will smile, meanwhile
Act smart, look dumb
Trust your storied tombs
And these memorial blooms
Seeds of laurel
You'll get a quarrel
Behalf the tardy years
Shedding lots of tears
Think about new careers
Crying in your beers
Where defeated valor lies
With teardrops in his eyes
Dreaming of General Lee
And the Confederacy

Small tributes but your shades
Shall overlook this bay
Somewhere, in the air
Is a Southern croix de guerre
Go a mile and see Stuckey
Buy pecans and get lucky
More proudly on these wreaths
Seeds of laurel
Here's a quarrel
Sisters bring their tears today
To overlook this bay
Rip a bag from Frito-Lay
Raise a ruckus, sing Olé!
Pilgrim here to pause
Better obey the laws
Don't ever fly the flag
It'll make them gag
‘Cause the symbol makes ‘em tremble

[Robert Meyer]

Don't let Michael Cantor see this. This is a poetry board; and it's only for <u>serious</u> poems, not some rock and roll nonsense!

Robert Meyer

[Alan Sullivan]

If Robert Zimmerman had started about a thousand miles south of Hibbing, he would surely have written something like this, but not as good.

[Richard Wakefield]

Sam:
I've been trying to get this to fit the tune (such as it is) of Subterranean Homesick Blues, but with limited success. No doubt the problem is my fautly scansion and deteriorated memory of the original.
More important is the way you capture Mr. Zimmerman's insouciant blending of the homey and the apocalyptic. In those days his imagination, like his voice, had a wonderful range. He'd go anywhere for a rhyme, anywhere for a note. Oh, let me not think on it.
Richard

PS The other day, after giving my wife my copy of "Modern Times" because I couldn't even stand to look at it, I heard on the radio "Like a Rolling Stone" and found myself thinking, "Wow, when he was young he could really sing." Then I remembered how people used to say, "I like his songs, but oh, God, that awful voice!"

[R. S. Gwynn]

Richard, one of my students is a blues guitarist, so I'm going to let him test it Wed. night. Tim Steele and Al Basile, a jazz musician, tell me I'm off quite a bit. To tell the truth, I couldn't find my Greatest Hits Vol. 1 to check. I have made a few changes but suspect many of my lines won't "sing."

I should have posted the link to the newspaper story that set this off.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/14/arts/music/14dyla.html ?ex=1315886400&en=b047f7c116eacc87&ei=5090&partner =rssuserland

And a link to Timrod's "Ode":
http://www.bartleby.com/102/171.html

I note that Timrod's poem was in fact sung on its occasion. Probably about as singable as "Concord Hymn," which used The Doxology.

[David Anthony]

That's a cracker, Sam.

I can't see that Dylan's doing anything more than fair obtaining, and Cisco seems to say as much. Dylan echoes Timrod's phrases but in a different context, and I expect we all have done something similar with other writers. It's a kind of homage really, intentional or not. Come to think of it, I did the same in my Stonewall Jackson sonnet, a poem which has often enough got me kicked from Maine to Massachusetts.

I'm not so keen on the way he uses other songs' tunes, though, in "Modern Times", eg "Red Sails in the Sunset". Bit of a failure of imagination there.

I am a fan of his new album, or at least every even-numbered track on it. The odd-numbered tracks all sound like filler to me. Funny, that. "When the Deal Goes Down" is lyrical, lilting and lovely, I think, with the help of Nimrod.

I like the close to Timrod's Ode:

"There is no holier spot of ground
Than where defeated valor lies,
By mourning beauty crowned!"

Best,
David