Visions of Dylan: his place as a poet, seen through Visions of Johanna

Bob Dylan is the world's greatest living artist, but that is not the same as the world's greatest living writer, or poet - his art is of a particular type, not lyric poetry (although I believe he's very well read in the lyric, Romantic, and symbolist poets) but song lyrics. You can try to read his lyrics, which have been brought together in at least two collections, and try to "hear" them without the melody and within Dylan's voice - and that's just about impossible to do, and of course why bother trying? The lyrics, the music, the performance are all of a piece - that's what makes him the world's greatest living artist, not one thing or the other. All that said, it's informative once in a while to step back and look at the lyric quality of his writing. Do his song lyrics stand up alone? A few of the great English poets, especially from the 17th century, wrote primarily lyrics - but Herrick et al. really don't stand up well against Spenser, Milton, Donne - not to mention S., whose comedies do include a few lyric interludes. Looking now at the lyrics to what I consider one of the 2 or 3 greatest of all Dylan's songs: Visions of Johanna. There are many odd baroque touches to his writing, many ornamentations, but at base his songs from this period (Blonde on Blonde era) are very simple: all of them are love songs, and generally songs of love lost or unfulfilled (his later CW songs, which have stood up very well against time, are more often about love fulfilled). VofJ is the paramount expression in Dylan's work of this mood: the yearning for the absent or idealized or unattainable woman, whose absence itself makes all around the poet, including the hapless Louise who's "just near," seem tawdry and undesirable. The special element in VofJ is that, in its 5 stanzas, with no repeated lines, Dylan moves deftly and inexorably from the personal to the universal - a comment not only on love and his psyche but on the nature of art itself. The 1st stanza, apparently in loft or apartment somewhere downtown NYC (possibly the Chelsea Hotel?) at night, Louise is nearby but not desirable - the poet lost in his vision of the unattainable. 2nd stanza moves out to a NYC street scene, contrasting Louise with the crude and foolish people the poet meets or sees in the city - he almost could love Louise, but then his feelings for J overwhelm him (I always thought he said that Louise is delicate and seems like Vermeer - was disappointed to see that the published lyrics, and in fact the performed son, says she seems like "the mirror" - an opportunity missed.) 3 stanza seems to describe the hangers-on and wanna-bes that the poet often meets, who pretend to know the ineffable Johanna and in their doing so anger and disturb the poet; 4th is the grandest of the stanzas, describing art (infinity goes up on trial) and the phony appreciation people express toward what they're taught to believe is beautiful - all of which pales beside J. Finally, Dylan concludes the night, brings us out into the early morning on an NYC street, all the feelings of the night are gone, vanished - except for the visions of Johanna. A great poem of love and yearning, mysterious - and inseparable from the beautiful music and the great performances both on BonB and in several concert versions.