My Back Pages

Crimson flames’ tide through my ears
Rolled high and mighty traps
Pounced with fire on flaming roads
Using ideas as my maps
“We’ll meet on edges, soon,” said I
Proud ‘neath heated brow.
Ah, but I was so much older then,
I’m younger than that now.

Half-wracked prejudice leaped forth
“Rip down all hate,” I screamed
Lies that life is black and white
Spoke from my skull. I dreamed
Romantic facts of musketeers
Foundationed deep, somehow
Ah, but I was so much older then,
I’m younger than that now.

Girls’ faces formed the forward path
From phony jealousies
To memorizing politics
Of ancient histories
Flung down by corpse evangelists
Unthought of, though, somehow–
Ah, but I was so much older then,
I’m younger than that now.

A self-ordained professor’s tongue
Too serious to fool
Spouted out that liberty
Is just equality in school
“Equality”– I spoke the word
As if a wedding vow
Ah, but I was so much older then,
I’m younger than that now.

In a soldier’s stance, I aimed my hand
At the mongrel dogs who teach
Fearing not that I’d become my enemy
In the instant that I preached
My pathway led by confusion boats
Mutiny from stern to bow
Ah, but I was so much older then,
I’m younger than that now.

Yes, my guard stood hard when abstract threats
Too noble to neglect
Deceived me into thinking
I had something to protect
Good and bad, I defined these terms
Quite clear, no doubt, somehow–
Ah, but I was so much older then,
I’m younger than that now.

-Bob Dylan, “My Back Pages”