On October 13, 2016, Bob Dylan won the Nobel Prize for Literature. He is the first musician to win the award and this is why it caused a controversy and people is debating about whether song lyrics, however brilliant, have the same artistic value as poetry or novels. Also he is the first American poet to win this prize. Just nine Amrican novelists and short-story writers and one dramatist have been awarded.
The Nobel citation says that they gave it to Dylan "for having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition"
Some accuse the Swedish Academy of abandoning its high standards and succumbing to populism, even though all the prizes are very important. Some critics give another point of view at this award. It is obious that we are moving from the print culture to an audiovisual culture, but this doesn't mean that print is dying and that people don't still write novels and poems, it's just that print has lost dominance and audiovisual is becoming more and more popular. Also they say that lots of poets are writing poems to be performed and to be heard rather than to be read. So in giving the prize to Dylan, the Swedish Academy is moving with the times and changing as our society does.
Here you can listen to his song Every Grain of Sand (1981):
Every Grain of Sand - Bob Dylan from Temuco Blues on Vimeo.
Here you have the lyrics:
In the time of my confession, in the hour of my deepest need,
When the pool of tears beneath my feet flood every newborn seed,
There's a dyin' voice within me reaching out somewhere,
Toiling in the danger and in the morals of despair.
Don't have the inclination to look back on any mistake -
Like Cain I now behold this chain of events that I must break.
In the fury of the moment I can see the Master's hand
In every leaf that trembles, in every grain of sand.
Oh, the flowers of indulgence and the weeds of yesteryear,
Like criminals they have choked the breath of conscience and good cheer.
Ah, the sun beat down upon the steps of time to light the way,
To ease the pain of idleness and the memory of decay.
I gaze into the doorway of temptation's angry flame
And every time I pass that way I always hear my name.
Then onward in my journey I've come to understand
That every hair is numbered like every grain of sand.
I have gone from rags to riches in the sorrow of the night,
In the violence of a summer's dream, in the chill of a wintery light,
In the bitter dance of loneliness fading into space,
In the broken mirror of innocence on each forgotten face.
I hear the agéd footsteps like the motion of the sea,
Sometimes I turn - there's someone there - other times it's only me.
I am hanging in the balance of the reality of man,
Like every sparrow falling, like every grain of sand.
MY OPINION
In my opinion, Bob Dylan does deserve the Nobel prize because he is a great songwriter and also a great poet. I think that beacause he sets his lyrics with music is not a reason for not giving him this prize. In my opinion Bob Dylan's poems could stand on its own without the rhythm of the songs, but also singing them attract more audience than just a written poem in our society.
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