With your mercury mouth in the missionary times
And your eyes like smoke and your prayers like rhymes
And your silver cross, and your voice like chimes
Oh, do they think could bury you?
With your pockets well protected at last
And your streetcar visions which you place on the grass
And your flesh like silk, and your face like glass
Who could they get to carry you?

Sad-eyed lady of the lowlands
Where the sad-eyed prophet says that no man comes
My warehouse eyes, my Arabian drums
Should I put them by your gate
Or, sad-eyed lady, should I wait?

With your sheets like metal and your belt like lace
And your deck of cards missing the jack and the ace
And your basement clothes and your hollow face
Who among them can think he could outguess you?
With your silhouette when the sunlight dims
Into your eyes where the moonlight swims
And your match-book songs and your gypsy hymns
Who among them would try to impress you?

Sad-eyed lady of the lowlands
Where the sad-eyed prophet says that no man comes
My warehouse eyes, my Arabian drums
Should I put them by your gate
Or, sad-eyed lady, should I wait?

The kings of Tyrus with their convict list
Are waiting in line for their geranium kiss
And you wouldn't know it would happen like this
But who among them really wants just to kiss you?
With your childhood flames on your midnight rug
And your Spanish manners and your mother's drugs
And your cowboy mouth and your curfew plugs
Who among them do you think could resist you?

Sad-eyed lady of the lowlands,
Where the sad-eyed prophet says that no man comes
My warehouse eyes, my Arabian drums
Should I leave them by your gate
Or, sad-eyed lady, should I wait?

Oh, the farmers and the businessmen, they all did decide
To show you the dead angels that they used to hide
But why did they pick you to sympathize with their side?
Oh, how could they ever mistake you?
They wished you'd accepted the blame for the farm
But with the sea at your feet and the phony false alarm
And with the child of a hoodlum wrapped up in your arms
How could they ever, ever persuade you?

Sad-eyed lady of the lowlands
Where the sad-eyed prophet says that no man comes
My warehouse eyes, my Arabian drums
Should I leave them by your gate
Or, sad-eyed lady, should I wait?

With your sheet-metal memory of Cannery Row
And your magazine-husband who one day just had to go
And your gentleness now, which you just can't help but show
Who among them do you think would employ you?
Now you stand with your thief, you're on his parole
With your holy medallion which your fingertips fold
And your saint-like face and your ghostlike soul
Oh, who among them do you think could destroy you?

Sad-eyed lady of the lowlands
Where the sad-eyed prophet says that no man comes
My warehouse eyes, my Arabian drums
Should I leave them by your gate
Or, sad-eyed lady, should I wait?


Lyrics submitted by klskrvtz, edited by Mellow_Harsher

Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands Lyrics as written by Bob Dylan

Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group

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Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands song meanings
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  • +7
    General Comment

    I have come to a radical decission: THIS IS THE BEST LOVE SONG I HAVE EVER HEARD In both Englilsh or Spanish It's more than a song, not even a poem, it's a prayer. It's about his wife at the time, Sara Lownes (hence Lowlands), ex-playgirl and mother of Jakob (The Wallflowers). Her first husband was an editor of a magazine ("your magazine husband who ne day just had to go") and his father was a metal worker ("and your sheets like metal/and your sheet metal memory of Cannery Row"). I spent a whole lot of time, months, trying to figure out what some parts pf the lyrics meant, searching the web and doing a lot of hard thinking. I came up with the idea idea of emptiness, of a void, in his warehouse eyes (now I see that they're eager to capture her, and it's just....wonderful).

    And her mercury mouth, you know, mercury slips away at contact.

    Well, there's so much to say that I realize it's silly to try to explain it line by line.

    But I'm simply obsessed with this song. I know it by heart, I bet that not even Dylan himself can say that.

    "your flesh like silk, your face like glass"

    "your silhouette when the sunlight dims Into your eyes where the moonlight swims"

    "your saintlike face, your ghostlike soul"

    Damn!

    Simply perfect. And his voice. The constant crescendo.

    where the sad-eyed prophet says that no man comes....

    cavernon February 03, 2005   Link

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