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03/09/2007

Dylan’s poetry to be taught in English schools

While university courses have been scrutinising Dylan’s work for years, not many school pupils have studied his songs as part of the official curriculum.

That’s about to change with the news (in yesterday’s Independent On Sunday) that lyrics from a range of songs, including I Dreamed I Saw St Augustine, are to be included on the national curriculum for English schools, thus ensuring the widest possible exposure for Dylan’s art among the iPod generation.

Some English teachers, of course, have been slipping Dylan into lessons for decades – Anne Ritchie, a good friend of The Dylan Daily, was exposing her 12-16 year old North London classes to Zim, alongside the Romantic poets and the Beats, 35 years ago. She wasn’t alone.

The welcome news of Dylan’s elevation is likely to resurrect the spurious media “debate” of a decade ago which attempted to belittle Dylan by comparing his poetry with that of Keats. It’s a wrong-headed exercise - if you’re going to compare Dylan with heritage poets, why bother with minor talents like Keats? The only worthwhile comparison is with Shakespeare.


Gerry Smith

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