'Not Dark Yet' by Bob Dylan : Brief Criticism

Introduction : This blog is written as the response to the Thinking Activity assigned by my professor Dr Dilip Barad sir concerning the post-lecture given by Professor and a famous Gujarati poet Dr Vinod Joshi on the topic of Indian Poetics and Criticism. For the thinking activity, we are asked to analyse any song/poem of whichever language of our own choice in context of I. A. Richards's Figurative Language and in terms of Indian Poetics and Criticism taught by Professor Dr Vinod Joshi sir.

Here I have selected a song 'Not Dark Yet' written by Bob Dylan. In 2016, Dylan was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature "for having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition".

(Photo Courtecy : Encyclopedia Britannica)

Here is the lyrics of the song selected and I will ascertain it through the lens of few Indian Prosodic Schools such as Rasa, Alamkara, Dhvani, Vakrokti, Riti, and Auchitya along with I. A. Richards's 'Metaphorical Language' used in poetry :

Shadows are fallin' and I've been here all day
It's too hot to sleep and time is runnin' away
Feel like my soul has turned into steel
I've still got the scars that the sun didn't heal
There's not even room enough to be anywhere
It's not dark yet but it's gettin' there

Well, my sense of humanity has gone down the drain
Behind every beautiful thing there's been some kind of pain
She wrote me a letter and she wrote it so kind
She put down in writin' what was in her mind
I just don't see why I should even care
It's not dark yet but it's gettin' there

Well, I've been to London and I been to gay Paris
I've followed the river and I got to the sea
I've been down on the bottom of the world full of lies
I ain't lookin' for nothin' in anyone's eyes
Sometimes my burden is more than I can bear
It's not dark yet but it's gettin' there

I was born here and I'll die here against my will
I know it looks like I'm movin' but I'm standin' still
Every nerve in my body is so naked and numb
I can't even remember what it was I came here to get away from
Don't even hear the murmur of a prayer
It's not dark yet but it's gettin' there


Source: Musixmatch
Songwriters: Bob Dylan
Not Dark Yet lyrics © Universal Tunes

› Analysis :

We start with initial stanza of the song,

Shadows are fallin' and I've been here all day
It's too hot to sleep and time is runnin' away
Feel like my soul has turned into steel
I've still got the scars that the sun didn't heal
There's not even room enough to be anywhere
It's not dark yet but it's gettin' there

In the aforementioned stanza, there seems to be an element of Rasa as a sensitive reader will certainly find the Karunya Rasa subsequently resulting into its Bhava that is Soka, i.e., Sorrow. We sense the speaker being in some kind of melancholic state wherein he seems to be wounded by the grief of some personal loss or being betrayed by his dear ones or something else, but be it what might have been, his pain is that much excruciating which is unbearable even by his soul and incurable - this arouses Karunya Rasa in Bhavaka's mind leading to generation of Soka Bhava in the Chitta of the sensitive Bhavaka, i.e., reader or spectator.

As far as Alamkara is concerned, the use of Rupaka Alamkara is seen which in English Figures of Speech comes as Metaphor. The speaker deems his soul to have been turned into steel, so direct comparison can be seen.

Lakshana Dhvani is also there when the speaker says that he cannot even sleep due to searing weather which suggests that he is on the point of life where he cannot have good words to say and feel the joy of life.

Coming down to second stanza, we get to know much about the poet's temperament :

Well, my sense of humanity has gone down the drain
Behind every beautiful thing there's been some kind of pain
She wrote me a letter and she wrote it so kind
She put down in writin' what was in her mind
I just don't see why I should even care
It's not dark yet but it's gettin' there

If we apply I. A. Richards's tgeory of 'Four Kinds of Meaning,' we can demonstrate :

(1) Sense : The sense of the song is that the speaker wants to express the grief along with philosophy of life.

(2) Feeling : Felling generated from the song is despairing and suggestive to the dull state of mind.

(3) Tone : The tone is sobersided for it sings the sorrows.

(4) Intention : If the superficial reading of the song is done, then there seems no implied meaning that the speaker wants to convey, but the profundity lies there where the speaker seems to alarm the people having guileless nature, lest they fell into the ditch dug by the selfish and the vicious people in the world.

The third stanza of the song deals with a tinge of 'Existentialism' in the beginning lines :

I was born here and I'll die here against my will
I know it looks like I'm movin' but I'm standin' still
Every nerve in my body is so naked and numb
I can't even remember what it was I came here to get away from
Don't even hear the murmur of a prayer
It's not dark yet but it's gettin' there

The last stanza can be criticized under the awning of Rasa Theory. The Rasa generated through the reading earnestly the stanza given, again it leads the reader to Karunya Rasa and its corollary - Soka Bhava.

Thank you!