[New-Poetry] Dylan on the page

Wed May 3 17:45:50 EDT 2006

I'm doing a unit on Dylan for my American Lit II class - starting Friday, and I'll definitely be including the Jack of Hearts.

I'm also teaching this class called "The Short Story," and since the only thing I have to do in it is assign one short story after another, I decided to vary it for the last part of the semester, and do other things that are short and tell a story -- songs, poems, a one-act play and (last up) Lynd Ward's wonderful graphic novel from the 1920s, "God's Man."

These are the songs and poems I used: Songs:

Stackolee (five different versions, including my poem and the Clash's Wrong 'em Boyo)

Maybellene

The Boxer

Take a Walk on the Wild Side

Lily, Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts

Billy the Kid

Poems:

Frost - Home Burial

Poe - The Raven

Kipling - Ballad of East and West

traditional - The Wife of Usher's Well

Keats - Eve of St. Agnes

Next up, the Dylan songs I'm using for American Lit:

Girl From The North Country

Masters Of War

A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall 

Times They Are A-Changin', 

Lonesome Death Of Hattie Carrol

Chimes Of Freedom 

Motorpsycho Nightmare 

Ballad In Plain D 

It Ain't Me Babe

Subterranean Homesick Blues 

Mr. Tambourine Man 

Gates Of Eden 

It's All Over Now, Baby Blue 

Like A Rolling Stone 

Ballad Of A Thin Man 

Highway 61 Revisited 

Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues 

Desolation Row 

Rainy Day Women #12 & 35

Stuck Inside of Mobile With The Memphis Blues Again 

Just Like A Woman

Positively 4th Street

Ballad Of Frankie Lee And Judas Priest

I Pity The Poor Immigrant 

Wicked Messenger

Lay Lady Lay

Day Of The Locusts

If Dogs Run Free 

Knockin' On Heaven's Door 

Forever Young 

Tangled Up In Blue

Lily, Rosemary And The Jack Of Hearts

Hurricane

Gotta Serve Somebody

Neighborhood Bully 

Man Of Peace

Any suggestions for alterations? 

  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: LauraHeidy at aol.com 
  To: new-poetry at wiz.cath.vt.edu 
  Sent: Wednesday, May 03, 2006 2:58 PM
  Subject: Re: [New-Poetry] Dylan on the page

  In a message dated 5/3/2006 1:50:18 PM Central Daylight Time, grahamd at ripon.edu writes:
     I tend to agree with Dave. I remember thinking, back in the 60s and 70s, that Dylan's surrealistic stuff would be awfully embarrassing to read 25 years hence, and now I'm finding out that I was wrong. It does hold up. 

  I dunno.  I loved it then, I still love it now.

  Lily, Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts
  (Bob Dylan - 1974)

  The festival was over, the boys were all plannin' for a fall,
  The cabaret was quiet except for the drillin' in the wall.
  The curfew had been lifted and the gamblin' wheel shut down,
  Anyone with any sense had already left town.
  He was standin' in the doorway lookin' like the Jack of Hearts.

  He moved across the mirrored room, "Set it up for everyone," he said,
  Then everyone commenced to do what they were doin' before he turned their heads.
  Then he walked up to a stranger and he asked him with a grin,
  "Could you kindly tell me, friend, what time the show begins?"
  Then he moved into the corner, face down like the Jack of Hearts.

  Backstage the girls were playin' five-card stud by the stairs,
  Lily had two queens, she was hopin' for a third to match her pair.
  Outside the streets were fillin' up, the window was open wide,
  A gentle breeze was blowin', you could feel it from inside.
  Lily called another bet and drew up the Jack of Hearts.

  Big Jim was no one's fool, he owned the town's only diamond mine,
  He made his usual entrance lookin' so dandy and so fine.
  With his bodyguards and silver cane and every hair in place,
  He took whatever he wanted to and he laid it all to waste.
  But his bodyguards and silver cane were no match for the Jack of Hearts.

  Rosemary combed her hair and took a carriage into town,
  She slipped in through the side door lookin' like a queen without a crown.
  She fluttered her false eyelashes and whispered in his ear,
  "Sorry, darlin', that I'm late," but he didn't seem to hear.
  He was starin' into space over at the Jack of Hearts.

  "I know I've seen that face before," Big Jim was thinkin' to himself,
  "Maybe down in Mexico or a picture up on somebody's shelf."
  But then the crowd began to stamp their feet and the house lights did dim
  And in the darkness of the room there was only Jim and him,
  Starin' at the butterfly who just drew the Jack of Hearts.

  Lily was a princess, she was fair-skinned and precious as a child,
  She did whatever she had to do, she had that certain flash every time she smiled.
  She'd come away from a broken home, had lots of strange affairs
  With men in every walk of life which took her everywhere.
  But she'd never met anyone quite like the Jack of Hearts.

  The hangin' judge came in unnoticed and was being wined and dined,
  The drillin' in the wall kept up but no one seemed to pay it any mind.
  It was known all around that Lily had Jim's ring
  And nothing would ever come between Lily and the king.
  No, nothin' ever would except maybe the Jack of Hearts.

  Rosemary started drinkin' hard and seein' her reflection in the knife,
  She was tired of the attention, tired of playin' the role of Big Jim's wife.
  She had done a lot of bad things, even once tried suicide,
  Was lookin' to do just one good deed before she died.
  She was gazin' to the future, riding on the Jack of Hearts.

  Lily washed her face, took her dress off and buried it away.
  "Has your luck run out?" she laughed at him, "Well, I guess you must
  have known it would someday.
  Be careful not to touch the wall, there's a brand-new coat of paint,
  I'm glad to see you're still alive, you're lookin' like a saint."
  Down the hallway footsteps were comin' for the Jack of Hearts.

  The backstage manager was pacing all around by his chair.
  "There's something funny going on," he said, "I can just feel it in the air."
  He went to get the hangin' judge, but the hangin' judge was drunk,
  As the leading actor hurried by in the costume of a monk.
  There was no actor anywhere better than the Jack of Hearts.

  Lily's arms were locked around the man that she dearly loved to touch,
  She forgot all about the man she couldn't stand who hounded her so much.
  "I've missed you so," she said to him, and he felt she was sincere,
  But just beyond the door he felt jealousy and fear.
  Just another night in the life of the Jack of Hearts.

  No one knew the circumstance but they say that it happened pretty quick,
  The door to the dressing room burst open and a cold revolver clicked.
  And Big Jim was standin' there, ya couldn't say surprised,
  Rosemary right beside him, steady in her eyes.
  She was with Big Jim but she was leanin' to the Jack of Hearts.

  Two doors down the boys finally made it through the wall
  And cleaned out the bank safe, it's said that they got off with quite a haul.
  In the darkness by the riverbed they waited on the ground
  For one more member who had business back in town.
  But they couldn't go no further without the Jack of Hearts.

  The next day was hangin' day, the sky was overcast and black,
  Big Jim lay covered up, killed by a penknife in the back.
  And Rosemary on the gallows, she didn't even blink,
  The hangin' judge was sober, he hadn't had a drink.
  The only person on the scene missin' was the Jack of Hearts.

  The cabaret was empty now, a sign said, "Closed for repair,"
  Lily had already taken all of the dye out of her hair.
  She was thinkin' 'bout her father, who she very rarely saw,
  Thinkin' 'bout Rosemary and thinkin' about the law.
  But, most of all she was thinkin' 'bout the Jack of Hearts.

  Lo
  Terminal Chaosity
  http://lauraheidy.blogspot.com/ 

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