19 pages • 38 minutes read
Bob DylanBlowin' in the Wind
Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1962A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Further Reading & Resources
Related Poems
“Only a Pawn in Their Game” by Bob Dylan (1964)
“Only a Pawn in Their Game” appears on Dylan’s third album, The Times They Are A-Changin’, the follow up to The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan. Compared to “Blowin' in the Wind,” this song gets specific. After the 1963 murder of the civil rights activist Medgar Evers, Dylan’s speaker calls out Southern politicians and police for perpetuating racism. In this poem, they are identified as the obstruction—the aforementioned mountain that people need to wash into the sea. During the March on Washington, a 1963 action for Black equality, Dylan performed the song.
“The Times They Are A-Changin’” by Bob Dylan (1964)
The title track from Dylan’s third album reinforces the theme of change. The wind becomes specific in this song: it reflects the passionate activism in the 60s. Dylan’s speaker tells parents and politicians that they should stop trying to hold onto past conventions and start embracing progress. Dylan sings, “It’ll soon shake your windows and rattle your walls” (Line 26). Like the wind, change can displace walls or whatever’s getting in the way. In “Blowin’ in the Wind,” the speaker asks the reader to consult the wind to change things. In “The Times They Are-A-Changin’,” change appears to have already arrived.
“Highway 61 Revisited” by Bob Dylan (1965)
Dylan released two albums in 1965, Bringing It All Back Home and Highway 61 Revisited. The albums represent a break from traditional folk music and songs like “Blowin’ in the Wind.” Dylan uses electric instruments and distances himself from activism. In the title track, Dylan continues to sing about the world’s ills. There is death and war, but there is no solution, and the diction, the words, have an irony—a cheeky twist that turns God into a murderer. Instead of the wind blowing away the horrors of the world, the horrors have a home on Highway 61, and the speaker discourages listeners from removing them.
“Howl” by Allen Ginsberg (1956)
The Beat poet Allen Ginsberg was a huge influence on Dylan, and demonstrating the fluidity between music and poetry, they worked together on songs like “Vomit Express” (1971). Ginsberg’s central work is Howl. Unlike “Blowin’ in the Wind,” Howl does not feature a blunt, plainspoken speaker. As with other Ginsberg’s poems, the language mixes surrealist diction with cutting social commentary and personal confessions—the kind of lyrics Dylan leaned into after The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan and The Times They Are-A-Changin’.
Further Literary Resources
Don’t Look Back directed by D. A. Pennebaker (1967)
D. A. Pennebaker’s black and white film documents Bob Dylan’s 1965 England tour. The movie takes the viewer into Dylan’s world and reveals the tension between his former role as a protest singer and his current role as an elusive contrarian. Ginsberg is in the film, and so is Joan Baez and Donovan.
Chronicles: Volume One by Bob Dylan (2004)
The first volume of Dylan’s memoirs also gives people a glimpse into his life. Dylan writes about the musicians that influenced him, like Robert Johnson and Woody Guthrie, and the beginnings of his superstar career. The book features an array of anecdotes and characters, but Dylan maintains his enigmatic persona by divulging little about his personal life.
“What’s Wrong With Bob Dylan’s Biographers?” by John Semley (2021)
In this book review, Semley gives an overview of the rise of Dylanology and the complexities in the field, from those who idolize him as divinity, to those who belligerently accuse Dylan of being a “compulsive liar.” The book he reviews, Clinton Heylin’s The Double Life of Bob Dylan (2021), demonstrates the way Dylan’s complicated image has both persisted and changed over time, and how biographers have such difficulty objectively engaging with the artist who has changed significantly through his long life.
Listen to Poem
Although the study guide analyzes “Blowin’ in the Wind” as a poem, Dylan recorded and performed it as a song. In this recording, the reader can become a listener and hear Dylan’s original 1963 song from his album The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan, as he accompanies his lyrics with an acoustic guitar and a harmonica.
