To me the song strongly suggests the period of Reconstruction after the American Civil War. The narrator could be a soldier mustered out after the war (from either the North or the South) who is contemplating going home and getting his life back together. He's "listening to the steel rails hum" or he's "sailing on back ready for the long haul." In either case he is going home to his "brand new wife" who seems to have forgotten him and whose tongue will have to be straightened out.
The term "proletariat" came into wide usage during this period of time when Karl Marx (1818 - 1883) used it to describe a class of citizens who have only their own labor to sell. That's a good description of a workingman. Now, after the war, it's time to put your cruel weapons up on the shelf and get back to work, selling your labor. But as the enemy troops retreated, they burned your barn and they stole your horse so you'll have to live on rice and beans for a while to get back on your feet.
The line about "peaceful sacred fields" seems to be an allusion to battlegrounds like Gettysburg, of which Abraham Lincoln said, "The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract." The workingman/soldier/veteran knows from experience that "they'll break your horns and slash you with steel" in battle. "I say it, so it must be so," he asserts.
I interpret this song, with its haunting beauty, as a tribute to those who returned home after the worst conflagration is U.S. history and rolled up their sleeves to work again. Dylan's genius wove this narrative into a love ballad with layer upon layer of profound meaning. I can't get this song out of my head. Thank you, Mr. Dylan.
To me the song strongly suggests the period of Reconstruction after the American Civil War. The narrator could be a soldier mustered out after the war (from either the North or the South) who is contemplating going home and getting his life back together. He's "listening to the steel rails hum" or he's "sailing on back ready for the long haul." In either case he is going home to his "brand new wife" who seems to have forgotten him and whose tongue will have to be straightened out.
The term "proletariat" came into wide usage during this period of time when Karl Marx (1818 - 1883) used it to describe a class of citizens who have only their own labor to sell. That's a good description of a workingman. Now, after the war, it's time to put your cruel weapons up on the shelf and get back to work, selling your labor. But as the enemy troops retreated, they burned your barn and they stole your horse so you'll have to live on rice and beans for a while to get back on your feet.
The line about "peaceful sacred fields" seems to be an allusion to battlegrounds like Gettysburg, of which Abraham Lincoln said, "The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract." The workingman/soldier/veteran knows from experience that "they'll break your horns and slash you with steel" in battle. "I say it, so it must be so," he asserts.
I interpret this song, with its haunting beauty, as a tribute to those who returned home after the worst conflagration is U.S. history and rolled up their sleeves to work again. Dylan's genius wove this narrative into a love ballad with layer upon layer of profound meaning. I can't get this song out of my head. Thank you, Mr. Dylan.