How Dylan stormed the artistic Bastille

Bob Dylan’s Nobel Prize may not please everyone, but it recognises the poetic integrity of a man who has drunk deep of many traditions

‘Tell me where is fancy bred, Or in the heart or in the head? How begot, how nourishèd?” Even in Shakespeare’s time - as we can see from this song from The Merchant of Venice - the debate about what is poetry has raged. Last week, the Nobel Prize for Literature committee poured oil on the flames. Can a songwriter be also a great poet? Their award of the 2016 Literature laureate to ...