Sir, – Regarding Bob Dylan’s hugely deserved award and the subsequent begrudging missives, it’s about time we heard more music in our “literature”, more rhythms and melody in our prose and less snobbery from the underachievers. – Yours, etc,
ANNE MARIE KENNEDY,
Craughwell,
Co Galway.
Sir, – Our latest Nobel laureate once recalled a conversation with Liam Clancy thus. “Remember Bob, no fear, no envy, no meanness”. Donald Trump, please note. – Yours, etc,
PAUL REARDON,
Dublin 9.
Sir, – When I read (October 14) that Bob Dylan was to be compared to Homer because of his “new poetic expressions”, I came up with a few myself: some were new, none were poetic. – Yours, etc,
D KEOGH,
Bray,
Co Wicklow.
Sir, – By its nature, poetry is an exploration of word and silence. A lyricist cannot understand this because they are writing with the expectation of their words being shaped by a melody. Sara Danius of the Nobel Prize committee ranks Sappho and Homer with Bob Dylan. Their poetry may have been used in song, but unlike Dylan, their work has endured for thousands of years without the addition of music. Much later poems, such as Patrick Kavanagh's On Raglan Road, have been set to music as well, but they endure without the need for song. This cannot be said for the clumsy choruses and tired images in Dylan's The Times They Are A Changin', which ache for a tune to soften them. And if words cannot stand without their music, can they truly be said to be literature? – Yours, etc,
ROSAMUND TAYLOR,
Dún Laoghaire,
Co Dublin.
Sir, – Surely in awarding the 2016 Nobel Prize for Literature to Bob Dylan, the Nobel committee has perpetrated their greatest travesty since awarding the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize to Barack Obama.
In that case, it was too early to know whether he would deserve it, but subsequent events have shown that the drone president does not, admirable though he may be in comparison to many other American politicians.
In Bob Dylan’s case, those who love his music probably feel the case is self-evident, but those of us who are not moved by his singing are not so persuaded of the literary quality of his words, which should be able to stand on their own to deserve the Nobel Prize for Literature. A great institution has debased itself. – Yours, etc,
CIARAN TAYLOR,
Dún Laoghaire,
Co Dublin.
Sir, – Katherine A Powers, a fellow Minnesotan of the Nobel laureate’s (October 14th), states that she loathes Bob Dylan and can’t bring herself to call him a poet without putting the word in inverted commas. She reminds me of those Dubliners who tell you emphatically that they can’t stand Bono. A case, I suppose, of no prophet being accepted in his own state. Yours, etc,
BRIAN AHERN,
Clonsilla,
Dublin 15.