Dylan, Shakespeare, and I'm Not There

The Impossible Song, Untangled

What follows is some kind of essay on the origins of that once-obscure Bob Dylan song, "I'm Not There (1956)", which was, of course, recorded in 1967. I've written down what he's probably almost definitely nearly singing, and I thought I might as well record it while I was at it. 

I've been wrestling with "I'm Not There" for a while. I first came across it as a bootleg, passed on by a friend almost 25 years ago. Since then, it's gained prominence, first as the title of the 2007 Dylan biopic, and eventually issued on The Bootleg Series.

I've read various attempts at transcribing it, and can see that few have got too far, at least in terms of producing a whole. On the official website, aptly, it's not there. Eyolf Østrem, whose site I depend on for Dylan chords and lyrics, has left it undeciphered, convinced that the hieroglyphs can be enjoyed as they are. And they can. 

Says Eyolf: "Even if it were possible to transcribe all the sounds that he makes (and even that is tough), it would still be hard to turn it into a coherent text which you can analyse and understand."

As a lifelong Dylan fan, linguist of sorts, and singer and songwriter with the Mild Antics, I figured I'm the one to do it. You can find my version of the lyrics after the forthcoming revelations.

Locating the key

Following hours of patient decryption, re-listening, and revising, I was left deliberating over a few details:

"She's the way, assailing, beautiful…"

Such an odd choice of vocabulary, I thought, if that's what he was singing. But I couldn't escape the fact that for once, the words rang out clearly. He could only be singing one of two things: "a sailing" or "assailing". I couldn't justify that beauty should sail but had anyone else ever used "assail" in the same breath as "beauty", I wondered?

"Click" went the lock, and the door opened.

My thesis is that Dylan's inspiration for "I'm Not There" is Shakespeare's Sonnets, especially the three linked sonnets, 40-42: source of the theme and, at least in part, the rhythm, as well as specific language and key ideas. Sonnets 142-144 also contain themes central to the song. Further metaphors, imagery, and language can be found in sonnets 33, 36, 51, and 151.

There's also a Hank Williams influence, namely from Alone and Forsaken, from which Dylan takes a good chunk of the line: "Alone and forsaken by fate and by man". Release date? 1955. Close!

Just as gratifying as these individual references was that I could enlist Shakespeare's help to corroborate and clarify my reading of the song. "I'm Not There" is knowable after all: a woman, two suitors, and their tangled, changing fortunes. That a love triangle is at the heart of it shouldn't be surprising for those familiar with the Dylan canon (see Caribbean Wind; Tin Angel; Lily, Rosemary...)

In Sonnets 40-42, Shakespeare's narrator, a poet, is the abandoned party in the triangle: "Both find each other, and I lose both twain" (Sonnet 42). In the case of "I'm Not There", the woman is abandoned by her lover, and seeks refuge with Dylan's narrator. He wonders if this is his chance to be with the woman he adores but she blows hot and cold, until he eventually tells her he's not the one to help her. "It's two hearts was taken."

You can read it as the sequel to Sonnets 40-42. More broadly, the protagonists in sonnets and song alike run to and fro between love and love's exit.

Shakespeare's fingerprints

To the individual references! Let's start with the similarities with the trilogy of sonnets, 40-42.

In Sonnet 41, we have our gateway reference to "assail" and "beauty", while two lines before, "temptation" makes a welcome appearance, allaying any fears that this could be a coincidence.

Shakespeare:

For still temptation follows where thou art.

Gentle thou art, and therefore to be won;

Beauteous thou art, therefore to be assailed;

Dylan:

She's the way, assailing, beautiful

She's mine for the one

And I'll also have her attention

by temptation, as it runs

On seeing that this was the second of three linked sonnets, I turned to the first, Sonnet 40, whose first line matches the lyrical rhythm of the first line of the song.

Shakespeare:

Take all my loves, my love, yea, take them all

Dylan:

She ain't alright, she's there, she's all too tight

In my rendering of Dylan's song, there were two instances of the word, "abuse", which didn't strike me as being particularly Dylan-like. But it's right there in Sonnet 42, along with references to a crime (in there being "offenders"), two loves lost, and a burden to bear.

Shakespeare: 

Loving offenders, thus I will excuse ye:

Thou dost love her because thou know’st I love her,

And for my sake even so doth she abuse me,

Suff’ring my friend for my sake to approve her.

If I lose thee, my loss is my love’s gain,

And losing her, my friend hath found that loss;

Both find each other, and I lose both twain,

And both for my sake lay on me this cross.

Dylan:

Well it's two hearts was taken

And I don't far believe

It's all back and forth abusing me

She's hard, too hard to leave

It's a load, it's a crime

The way she won't be around

Let's skip to Sonnet 142, where Shakespeare laments his lover's adultery - "I love thee as thou lov’st those" - and goes on, in Sonnet 143, to use an analogy of a mother neglecting her baby while chasing after a chicken (of all things!)

Shakespeare: 

So will I pray that thou mayst have thy will,

If thou turn back and my loud crying still.

Dylan: 

She's my Christ-forsaken angel

But she don't hear me cry

&

Well it's all about the abuse

And that I cry for her fill

&

I've been told like I said before

"Carry on the crying"

Then Sonnet 144 is dedicated to depicting her simultaneously as an angel and an evil spirit. Dylan hasn't mined specific lines here but there's a strong thematic connection.

Shakespeare: 

And whether that my angel be turned fiend

Suspect I may, yet not directly tell

Dylan: 

She's my Christ-forsaken angel

Of the other sonnets that were a likely influence - 33, 36, 51, and 151 - I include extracts in the order that they appear in the song.

Shakespeare sees "her" as a prize in Sonnet 151, as does Dylan, both recognising the risk of becoming her slave.

Shakespeare: 

But, rising at thy name, doth point out thee

As his triumphant prize. Proud of this pride,

He is contented thy poor drudge to be

Dylan: 

No I don't belong to her

I don't belong to every prize

A minor one, this, but I was pleased to see Sonnet 36, having already opted for "honor".

Shakespeare: 

Nor thou with public kindness honor me

Dylan:

But she don't honor me

Shakespeare, leaving his lover behind, uses the metaphor of a journey on horseback in Sonnet 51, and Dylan uses some of the same language.

Shakespeare:

Then can no horse with my desire keep pace;

Therefore desire, of ⌜perfect’st⌝ love being made,

Shall neigh no dull flesh in his fiery race.

But love for love thus shall excuse my jade:

“Since from thee going he went willful slow,

Towards thee I’ll run, and give him leave to go.”

Dylan:

And I run but I race

But it's not too fast or slow

In Sonnet 33, and also 34, the poet's changeable relationship with his love is mirrored by the weather.

Shakespeare:

Even so my sun one early morn did shine

With all-triumphant splendor on my brow,

But, out alack, he was but one hour mine;

The region cloud hath masked him from me now.

Dylan:

Yes, she's gone like the rain, you know,

That's shining yesterday

But now she's a-home beside me

And I'd like her here to stay

I hope there's enough evidence here to persuade you that Dylan didn't just pluck this song out of thin air. Many commenters, Dylanologists and music fans alike, seem hellbent on the idea of a mystical conduit between universe and songwriter. But Dylan didn't dream it all up. He listened, read, and related. He played around with ideas, words, and music but in a context. The only conduit is the Tower of Song. And while, today, there might not seem to be much activity on the lower floors, you do still occasionally hear a cough.

With all that said, here's Dylan's forsaken masterpiece:

I'm Not There (1956)

She ain't alright
She's there, she's all too tight
in my neighborhood
She cry both day and night
I know it because it was there

It's a milestone
But she down on her luck
And she daily so loaded
That it make him hard to buck
I was there

I believe that she'd stop him
If she wants time to share
I believe that she'd look upon
deciding to care,
And I go by the Lord anywhere
She's on my way
But I don't belong there

No I don't belong to her
I don't belong to every prize
She's my Christ-forsaken angel
But she don't hear me cry
She's a long-hearted mystic
And she can't carry on
When I'm there she's alright
But she's not, when I'm gone

Heaven knows that's the answer!
She don't call in no one
She's the way, assailing, beautiful
She's mine for the one
And I'll also have her attention
by temptation, as it runs
But she don't honor me
But I'm not there, I'm gone

Now I'll cry out tonight
Like I cried the night before
And I'm pleased on the highs
But I dream about the door
She's alone, she's forsaken
By fate? Who is to tell?
It don't have approximation
"She's my all", says it well

Now when I entreat that lady
I was born to love her
But she knows that the kingdom
weighs so high above her
And I run but I race
But it's not too fast or slow
But I don't perceive her
I'm not there, I'm gone

Well it's all about the abuse
And that I cry for her fill
I don't need anybody now
beside me to tell
And it's all affirmation
I receive, but it's not
She's a lone part in beauty
But she don't like the spot
And she gone

Yes, she's gone like the rain, you know,
That was shining yesterday
But now she's a-home beside me
And I'd like her here to stay
She's a born forsaken beauty
And it don't trust anyone
I wish I was beside her
But I'm not there, I'm gone

Well it's two hearts was taken
And I don't far believe
It's all back and forth abusing me
She's hard, too hard to leave
It's a load, it's a crime
The way she won't be around
Was she told for to hate me?
Just a doggone forsaken clown

Yes I believe that it's rightful
Oh I believe it in my mind
I've been told like I said before
"Carry on the crying"
And she's all, yet I told her,
like I said, "carry on"
I wish I was there to help her
But I'm not there, I'm gone.

Bob Dylan.

Restored by Andrew Szwejkowski with invaluable input from William Shakespeare, courtesy of the Folger Shakespeare Library.

Informed and misinformed in equal measure by a multitude of tinkerers.

I'll close with a few notes on where I've exercised poetic licence: 

i. I've exercised poetic licence just about everywhere but I've tried not to use colours from the wrong palette.

ii. The song starts halfway through the word "ain't", so we can't be certain about the opening pronoun. The form of Shakespeare's line, "Take… take…", the prominence of lines led by "she", and the fact that she's crying all the time, suggest that "she" ain't alright. (Dylan, of course, plays fast and loose with pronouns - listen to a live version of "Tangled Up In Blue" for evidence.)

iii. The dropping of third person "s" is an intermittent feature throughout the song. Eg. "She cry both day and night"; "She don't honor me"; "She gone". I assume he's doing this in the name of dialect, and I've left them in where they're more prominent.

iv. Generally, where there's a lack of coherence, I've tidied things up a bit. "It don't have approximation" and what remains of that verse is certainly an approximation; "Just a doggone forsaken clown" probably is what he sings but it took imagination; while "I've been told like I said when I before..." - which is what he actually sings - could never stand.

v. Perhaps most controversially, I've gone with, "If she wants time to share" when he clearly sings "care". My reasoning is that he sings "care" again a line later, and strongly. Did he really mean to sing it twice? I can't see a justification. Does "share" fit the context? Yes. And it should already be obvious that it's easy to make a slip when you're singing. Anyway, if you don't approve, like I said before, carry on the crying!