Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham Launches New Attack To Recapture Key Border Crossing In Northern Idlib (Photos)

Very nice words… But, I had never spent before, so much time reading again and again a answer to a previous comment of mine, wishing to find the slightest sense or relationship with the subject of my previous comment, but everything was in vain. Please, could you re-formulate your comment dear friend of mine, for a more greater benefit of mine and of all others commenting here?

Of course Terence, although your focus is on the “Battle of Sinners and Saints” (metaphorically speaking) in the ME it is a much larger battle worldwide that has come to the people of the ME, as well as the world wide battle that is raging. I make this as a positive recognition to an overall perspective of observations from the oral and written word since time immoral. There are more poems and songs from observers’ impressions of the cycles of evolution of man and what may be referred to as soul and over soul in our relations among man, tribes and sovereign nations of.

This is what came to mind as I followed the conversation of many here in following world events. Now my personal impressions of the words and meanings but acknowledging it is from our personal experiences that vary our impressions or personal understandings as individuals.

“All Along The Watchtower” is spare and restrained. The song consists of only three verses, with no chorus. The language is simple. Yet the three verses are packed with meaning and drama. Let’s see how it starts. “There must be some kind of way out of here,” Said the joker to the thief.

Notice how Dylan starts the song by throwing us into the middle of a conversation, and begins with an urgent statement. We don’t know where the “here” is from which the speaker wants to escape, but we know he wants out. The sense of drama is immediate. We find out that the two people speaking are “the joker” and “the thief.” These are archetypal characters that have existed in one form or another for thousands of years.

By identifying them in this way, Dylan invokes a sense of timelessness. Because these figures are broad archetypes, there is already a suggestion that this might be a parable of some sort, a story whose essence remains the same over many different times, places and characters. The joker, or jester, can be seen in general to represent the artist: someone whose role is to amuse other members of the established order, but also to provoke them, to suggest alternate ways of looking at reality. And, of course, the joker and the thief are both outsiders of a sort, united in their separation from more ordered segments of society.

“There’s too much confusion, I can’t get no relief. Businessmen, they drink my wine, Plowmen dig my earth. None of them along the line Know what any of it is worth.” The rest of the verse tells us why the joker wants to escape: there is too much confusion. But what is confused? Others are benefiting from his labors, and working for him to help produce the results. But neither understands the worth of their efforts. So the confusion is about values: what is valuable and what is not. “No reason to get excited,” The thief he kindly spoke. “There are many here among us Who feel that life is but a joke. But you and I, we’ve been through that, And this is not our fate. So let us not talk falsely now, The hour is getting late.”

The second verse begins with the thief speaking “kindly” to the joker. This adverb lets us know that he is sympathetic and that he, perhaps, understands the worth of the joker and his efforts. The thief goes on to say that while there are those who think that life is “but a joke,” the thief and the joker know better, having lived through that. So while others may still be confused, these two are not. Since they understand the value of life, it is important for them to be truthful with one another. Then the last line of the verse brings us back from exposition to a sense of drama and movement, and impending action: “the hour is getting late.”

All along the watchtower, Princes kept the view, While all the women came and went — Barefoot servants too. Outside in the cold distance, A wildcat did growl. Two riders were approaching, and The wind began to howl.

The beginning of this final verse suddenly shifts the scene, without at first giving us any sense of how this new setting connects to the first one. In contrast to the first two verses, which were full of conversation, this verse unfolds almost cinematic, full of visual imagery. This new scene is populated with princes, women, and barefoot servants, establishing a time and place in the past, although again using enduring, archetypal figures. These figures guarding their castle seem to represent established society, and the existing power structure.

But what are they guarding against?

A wildcat growls from a distance, suggesting the savage, untamed power of nature lurking just beyond the well-ordered lights of the castle. Then we see the two riders approaching. Suddenly, in only four words, the first two verses are connected with the last. With a sort of cinematic establishing shot, but used at the end of the story rather than the beginning, we see the thief and the joker approaching the castle. We already know that they want to establish a different set of values, one based on the worth of human life.

Their approach towards the guarded castle suggests an impending confrontation. And then the last line of the song strengthens this suggestion with imagery of a furious storm starting to build.

Note how this last verse has made physical the relationships suggested in the previous lines. The thief, joker and wildcat are all placed outside the castle, which is occupied by princes and servants. So we now have, in a very concrete sense, independent outsiders and a rigid power hierarchy.

From a traditional dramatic viewpoint, almost nothing happens in this song: two riders talk to each other while approaching a castle. We’ve hardly got a decent first act, let alone a whole play. Yet by repeatedly hinting at the intensity of a coming confrontation, and by identifying the two opposing forces, Dylan keeps us on the edges of our seats, wondering what will happen next.

The effect at the end is comparable to the conclusion of William Butler Yeats’ famous poem, “The Second Coming”: “And what rough beast, its hour come round at last, slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?” In both cases, there is a perceptible chill creeping up the spine, as the poet leaves his reader to contemplate the inevitability and intensity of the coming confrontation, and its consequences.

Note: In “The Second Coming”, the definition of Spiritus Mundi.

Spiritus Mundi is a Latin term that literally means, ”world spirit.” In Spiritus Mundi, there is, according to William Butler Yeats, ”a universal memory and a ‘muse’ of sorts that provides inspiration to the poet or writer.”

Also, the speaker describes a nightmarish scene: the falcon, turning in a widening “gyre” (spiral), cannot hear the falconer; “Things fall apart; the center cannot hold”; anarchy is loosed upon the world; “The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere / the ceremony of innocence is drowned.”

You asked so I hope this is an adequate response to your inquiry but could not condense it into a link. I hope others are not upset with such a long comment but you asked!

Best regards George

Great and fabulous are the only words that come to my mind when reading such a masterly and transcendental exposition analytical literary, in perfect harmony not only with our subject commented now, but with all the reason for being of all the news notes that this mediatic site shares with us, so professionally. Thank you my friend, because it is not very common to find people with minds of your size delighting us with their wise and knowledgeable interventions here. Nice to meet you.

Dylan obsessives – they will pop up in the least expected places!