This poem by Bob Dylan was written when he was 22 years old
83 years ago, Bob Dylan was born.
This early masterpiece will be studied by scholars 810 years from now. It will hopefully still be sung in halls, and sadly will likely be just as relevant as it was in 1963 and 2024.
Far between sundown’s finish and midnight’s broken toll
We ducked inside the doorways, thunder went crashing
As majestic bells of bolts struck shadows in the sounds
Seeming to be the chimes of freedom flashin’
Flashin’ for the warriors whose strength is not to fight
Flashin’ for the refugees on the unarmed road of flight
And for each an’ every underdog soldier in the night
And we gazed upon the chimes of freedom flashin’
Through the city’s melting furnace, unexpectedly we watched
With faces hidden as the walls were tightening
As the echo of the wedding bells before the blowin’ rain
Dissolved into the bells of the lightning
Tolling for the rebel, tolling for the rake
Tolling for the luckless, the abandoned and forsaked
Tolling for the outcast burnin’ constantly at stake
And we gazed upon the chimes of freedom flashin’
Through the mad mystic hammering of the wild ripping hail
The sky cracked its poems in naked wonder
That the clinging of the church bells blew far into the breeze
Leaving only bells of lightning and its thunder
Striking for the gentle, striking for the kind
Striking for the guardians and protectors of the mind
And the poet and the painter pull out of his rightful time
And we gazed upon the chimes of freedom flashin’
Through the wild cathedral evening, the rain unraveled tales
For the disrobed faceless forms of no position
Tolling for the tongues with no place to bring their thoughts
All down in taken-for-granted situations
Tolling for the deaf and blind, tolling for the mute
For the mistreated, mateless mother, the mistitled prostitute
For the misdemeanor outlaw, chased and cheated by pursuit
And we gazed upon the chimes of freedom flashin’
Even though a cloud’s white curtain in a far-off corner flared
And the hypnotic splattered mist was slowly liftin’
Electric light still struck like arrows, fired but for the ones
Condemned to drift or else be kept from drifting
Tolling for the searching on their speechless, seeking trail
For the lonesome-hearted lovers with too personal a tale
And for each unharmful, gentle soul misplaced inside a jail
And we gazed upon the chimes of freedom flashin’
Starry-eyed and laughing as I recall when we were caught
Trapped by no track of hours for they hanged suspended
As we listened one last time an’ we watched with one last look
Spellbound an’ swallowed ’til the tolling ended
Tolling for the aching ones whose wounds cannot be nursed
For countless confused, accused, misused, strung-out ones & worse
And for every hung-up person in the whole wide universe
And we gazed upon the chimes of freedom flashin’