Tim's Free English Lesson Plans – Use them, share them ...



Read the poem and answer the questions with your partner:What do you think the poem is about?Who do you think the poet is talking to?What might have happened to the person?You must leave nowTake what you need you think will lastBut whatever you wish to keepYou’d better grab it fastYonder stands your orphan with his gunCrying like a fire in the sunLook out, the saints are coming throughAnd it's all over now, baby blueThe highway is for gamblersBetter use your senseTake what you have gatheredFrom coincidenceThe empty handed painter from your streetsIs drawing crazy patterns on your sheetsThe sky, too, is folding over youAnd it's all over now, baby blueAll your seasick sailorsThey’re all rowing homeAll your reindeer armiesThey’re all going homeThe lover, who just walked out your doorHas taken all his blankets from the floorThe carpet too, is moving under youAnd it's all over now, baby blueLeave your stepping stones behindNow, something calls for youForget the dead you've leftThey will not follow youThe vagabond who's rapping at your doorIs standing in the clothes that you once woreStrike another match, go start anewAnd it's all over now, baby blueComment 1“I think there is one line here that is misunderstood, and it is pretty nifty.?When Dylan is wrapping up the song, and he's telling the woman to leave the dead and to start over, he says the line "strike another match girl, start anew" I really think it's "girl" and not "go"-- if you listen to the song it could go either way, but just here me out.I think this line reference to Hans Christian Andersen's "The Little Match Girl," in which a vagabond child selling matches sees visions of warm, safe places she will never be a part of, and each time she lights a match she sees a new scene, a new life. At the end of the fairy-tale, she lights her final match and dies... but in Dylan's case, when he says to "light another match, girl" he's not talking about a REAL death, he's talking about a change. Like the girl in the story, the subject of this song is down-and-out, she thought she was in a safe place, but she's not-- the carpet's being pulled right out from under her. She needs to figuratively "light a match" and see the possibilities for a new life, and she needs to accept, even embrace this change and join the vagabond outside to start a new journey.”Comment 2“I think this song is about accepting changes in life. this was the last song Dylan played at the infamous Newport concert (where he was booed for going electric) and the last song on Bringing It All Back Home (his last album that was mostly acoustic) I think he is just saying it is time for him to move on creatively”Comment 3“Could it be that Dylan is Baby Blue? He has to stop listening to everyone's expectations as to where he should go. He must leave those stepping stones and go his own way even though there may be a price to pay.” ................
................

In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.

Google Online Preview   Download