So shines a good deed in a naughty world." I see there a double meaning on the one hand the comparison of the luminosity of candle light piercing the gloom to the shining beacon of goodness amongst evil but on the other hand (especially if spoken with sarcasm) how the light from one small candle is so insignificant in such a dark place and such is the good deed lost in an ostensibly evil world.Anthro Doggo - BF And GF - BGFriend - Vs. How about this - Shakespeare's Portia says "How far that little candle throws his beams. Just as Rutger Hauer at the end of "Blade Runner" says - ".like tears lost in rain." That is to say that they are un-noticed, un-heeded, pointless, lost. Like "a drop in the ocean" a "fire in the sun" is a lost and meaningless thing. Imagine the sun - a giant infernal ball of nuclear fusion. However with the lyric above I see a simple metaphor for pointless tears. ("Crying like a fire in the sun." Cry like a fire, son, the enormity of burning pain cannot even be comprehended, like if you think a fire burns, imagine how hot the sun is )Īs a sometime writer of poetry I love hearing how people can misinterpret some of my words - but then words can be deliberately ambiguous and misleading. General CommentI just had to respond to karmacat: 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. 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. 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. At the end of the fairy-tale, she lights her final match and dies. 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. 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. General CommentI think there is one line here that is misunderstood, and it is pretty nifty. I can't put them in a box and wrap them up with a bow. I can't help listening." For me, Dylan's lyrics are often like that. There's a wonderful line in a Jackson Browne song about death."It's like a song I can hear right in my ear. So gather them up and make the best sense out of things that you can. those seeming coincidences may just give us a clue. kind of like."Life is very mysterious and uncertain and we're not going to figure it out really well, but hey. The author felt it was very metaphysical.
About 30 years ago I read a whole essay in some magazine about the "take what you have gathered from coincidence" line. it's obviously more warning to those who want to stay put but are forced, as we all are, to move on and start anew. Take what you have gathered from coincidence." I could go off for a while on what I think it means. "The highway is for gamblers, better use your sense. But as is so typical of him, the images don't all make perfect sense, at least not to me. General CommentThe obvious major theme of this song is Dylans moving on out of the folk scene, and giving a kind of warning to others than you can't stop change. Is standing in the clothes that you once wore Leave your stepping stones behind now, something calls for youįorget the dead you've left, they will not follow you Has taken all his blankets from the floor The empty-handed painter from your streetsĪll your seasick sailors, they are rowing home Take what you have gathered from coincidence The highway is for gamblers, better use your sense You must leave now, take what you need, you think will lastīut whatever you wish to keep, you better grab it fast