While the Pope is besieged by angry Muslims and the New York Times’ editorial board, and has today issued a sort-of apology, Bob Dylan continues to silently defy the world’s media as it probes his use, in the lyrics of his new album, of up to ten phrases that can also be found in the poetry of Henry Timrod. Some stories below:

Plagiarizin’ in the wind

Dylan ‘borrows’ lyrics from works of little-known American civil poet

Is Dylan a poet pilferer?

Dylan accused of rhyming and stealing

As I indicated the other day, it’s not a particularly big story from my point of view. Dylan has never tried to hide or deny his thieving ways — from the melody of Blowin’ in the Wind on down — though neither has he ever footnoted them. Dylan’s art has always had a a sizeable chunk of derivation. Many of Dylan’s better-known critics wouldn’t have jobs were it not for the service they take upon themselves to provide in tracking down his sources (Marcus and Gray come to mind). Dylan has openly described, in interviews on the subject of songwriting, how he sometimes goes around with a notebook scribbling down scraps of conversation, movie dialogue and whatever else — things which might later wind up in songs. Obviously the “whatever else” has recently included the book “Confessions of a Yakuza” and various poetry of Henry Timrod. If this is a disqualifier for anyone, in terms of enjoying the ultimate new product that Dylan’s imagination assembles from those sources and others, then so be it, though it seems absurd to me.

One of the Timrod phrases that shows up in Dylan’s song When the Deal Goes Down is “frailer than the flowers,” as in:

Oh! here, where in that summer noon I basked,
And strove, with logic frailer than the flowers,
To justify a life of sensuous rest, …

versus Dylan’s:

More frailer than the flowers
These precious hours
That keep us so tightly bound

So, to the phrase “frailer than the flowers,” Dylan pre-appends the word “more.” The redundancy of the word “more,” when the next word is “frailer,” is what gives the phrase a certain heartbreaking quality, you may notice. “More frail” would mean the same as “frailer;” by making it, instead, “more frailer,” Dylan does something unexpected and unexpectedly powerful. Christopher Ricks, who has called Dylan the greatest living user of the English language, would probably be better able to elucidate it than yours-truly.

All I can really say is that in adding “more,” Dylan is most definitely adding more.

And that’s more than enough for me.

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