Bob Dylan Speaks to Edgar Allan Poe

There is an undeniable intertextuality between Bob Dylan’s compositions and Edgar Allan Poe’s Literature. Christopher Rollason, author of Tell-Tale Signs - Edgar Allan Poe and Bob Dylan has written an article on this matter of intertextuality between the latter artists. This paper will endeavor on Rollason’s credentials, the disciplines used, the techniques used by Rollason to persuade the audience of this intertextuality, beginning with a brief summary of the article.

Tell-Tale Signs - Edgar Allan Poe and Bob Dylan, Rollason shows numerous examples where Dylan has used Poe’s work to inspire him in his lyrical composition as well as musical compositions. He begins with a brief introduction to Dylan and Poe’s careers contrasting them to who they really were as artists compared to what the media has portrayed them to be and what they are mostly known for. He begins by portraying, through Dylan’s words the admiration for Poe that Dylan had, from his book Tarantula and an interview from 2004. He then goes into describing the intertextuality in Dylan’s work to Poe. He explains how Dylan has used full works of Poe’s, such as The Bells and simply put music to it and how other artists have taken poems like Annabel lee and put them to music as well. He then describes many links of intertextuality, for example the song Disease of Conceit is compared to The Tell-Tale Heart. Finally, he explains how Dylan’s intertextuality is furthered through other well known authors such as Ovid, Twain, Virgil and Fitzgerald, and even the lesser known Tim Rod.

Christopher Rollason, has a PhD from the University of York in English. He has written many papers on Edgar Allan Poe. In fact his thesis paper was written on the topic; The Construction of the Subj...

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...it. I actually think about Poe's stories, 'The Tell-Tale Heart', 'The Pit and the Pendulum'" (Dylan, 1985).

The article properly analysed both Poe’s and Dylan’s work in order to find the link between them. Furthermore, the article gave other snippets of intertextuality between, not only Dylan and other artists but Poe as well. Rollason persuaded his audience well, not only because he is trusted given his credentials, and the few disciplines he used but also through the numerous examples he gave using Poe and Dylan’s work, other scholars’ works, Dylan’s words and even in quoting his previous work. The topic of choice for Rollason’s article was interesting, considering my love for Poe’s work and my appreciation of Dylan’s, I thought it a very well written and enjoyable article.

Works Cited

Tell-Tale Signs - Edgar Allan Poe and Bob Dylan -Christopher Rollason