This song/poem is about obsession and how obsession changes your reality. Love can be an obsession as can hate or any human emotion. The man in the song is obsessed with this woman so much that his reality has become twisted and his existence no longer makes sense...he in fact no longer exists, he has died from his obsession like Lazarus died from disease and now looks to a Saviour to bring him back to life. It is a chilling look at the crippiling power of unrequited love.
@mindfull51 That would be the literal interpretation, correct so far as it goes. But as always, Dylan is looking deeper. "The girl from the Red River Shore" is a metaphor for any wonderful elusive thing you can never have, something you once almost had, or imagine that you did. The wish that there could be that one fine thing that you could have and hold forever -- that plausible, palpable god or ideal that would never let go. The singer stands at the point just before the rational mind embraces the absurdity of perfections and immortalities, and learns to take...
@mindfull51 That would be the literal interpretation, correct so far as it goes. But as always, Dylan is looking deeper. "The girl from the Red River Shore" is a metaphor for any wonderful elusive thing you can never have, something you once almost had, or imagine that you did. The wish that there could be that one fine thing that you could have and hold forever -- that plausible, palpable god or ideal that would never let go. The singer stands at the point just before the rational mind embraces the absurdity of perfections and immortalities, and learns to take things as they come, with humor and gratitude. Though we can\'t know what Dylan himself, personally, wished us to take away, if indeed he wished for any particular effect at all.
This song/poem is about obsession and how obsession changes your reality. Love can be an obsession as can hate or any human emotion. The man in the song is obsessed with this woman so much that his reality has become twisted and his existence no longer makes sense...he in fact no longer exists, he has died from his obsession like Lazarus died from disease and now looks to a Saviour to bring him back to life. It is a chilling look at the crippiling power of unrequited love.
@mindfull51 That would be the literal interpretation, correct so far as it goes. But as always, Dylan is looking deeper. "The girl from the Red River Shore" is a metaphor for any wonderful elusive thing you can never have, something you once almost had, or imagine that you did. The wish that there could be that one fine thing that you could have and hold forever -- that plausible, palpable god or ideal that would never let go. The singer stands at the point just before the rational mind embraces the absurdity of perfections and immortalities, and learns to take...
@mindfull51 That would be the literal interpretation, correct so far as it goes. But as always, Dylan is looking deeper. "The girl from the Red River Shore" is a metaphor for any wonderful elusive thing you can never have, something you once almost had, or imagine that you did. The wish that there could be that one fine thing that you could have and hold forever -- that plausible, palpable god or ideal that would never let go. The singer stands at the point just before the rational mind embraces the absurdity of perfections and immortalities, and learns to take things as they come, with humor and gratitude. Though we can\'t know what Dylan himself, personally, wished us to take away, if indeed he wished for any particular effect at all.