"All Along the Watchtower": Bob Dylan's Sequel to Robert Browning's "Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came"
- Jul 11, 2025
- 1 min read
By Jason Miller
Dylan’s 1967 song “All Along the Watchtower” can be understood as a sequel to Browning’s 1855 poem. This sequel addresses the dilemmas of what happens to an artist once they arrive as a musician. By bringing Browning’s neglected poem into the conversation, this essay extends the exemplary work of connecting Dylan and Browning finely documented by Michael Gray. “Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came” supplies all the iconic imagery invoked in Dylan’s final stanza in the form of a tower, wildcat, and blown wind. As such, the strangely persistent notion that Dylan’s imagery only alludes to the biblical passage from Isaiah 21: 5-9 can now be fully expanded.
