Mr Metaphor Man : A study of Bob Dylan's lyrics

Sammanfattning: This study was carried out in order to investigate the purpose of Bob Dylan’s creative metaphors. Focus was on whether they were used for artistic effect or to simplify and concretize abstract concepts. Ten songs written in the last five decades were randomly selected and searched for occurrences of creative metaphors. The metaphors found were chronologically listed and discussed in terms of potential source and target domains in order to determine their purpose. The results showed rather clearly that Dylan’s creative metaphors, regardless of whether the domains were abstract or concrete, seemed to complicate rather than simplify the interpretation of a line. There were a few instances where the creative metaphors could be interpreted as being explanatory; however, this was regarded as a secondary effect since it was clear that the primary purpose for Dylan’s creative metaphors was to add an artistic touch. Moreover, this purpose did not seem to have changed in any way during the last five decades.