I once asked Bobby: ‘Have you ever heard about Rimbaud?’ He said: ‘Who?’ I repeated: ‘Rimbaud – R-I-M-B-A-U-D. He’s a French poet. You really ought to read him,’ I said. Bobby king of twitched a little; he seemed to be thinking about it. He just said: ‘Yeah, yeah.’ I raised Rimbaud with him a couple of times after than. Much later, I was up at his place. I always look at people’s books. On his shelf I discovered a book of translations of French symbolist poets that had obviously been thumbed through over a period of years! I think he probably knew Rimbaud backward and forward before I even mentioned him. I didn’t mention Rimbaud to him again until I heard his ‘A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall,’ his first symbolist venture. I said to Bob: ‘You know, that song of yours is heavy in symbolism, don’t you?’ He said: ‘Huh?’
No direction home: the life and music of Bob Dylan, Robert Shelton.
Folio Found. 