Fated to live after their time

The common saying that a person “was born ahead of his time” expresses a future oriented view, suggesting that the future is better, and the person missed it by having been born too early. Bob Dylan beautifully turned that around in “Chimes of Freedom”:

Through the mad mystic hammering of the wild ripping hail
The sky cracked its poems in naked wonder
As the clinging of the church bells blew far into the breeze
Leaving only bells of lightning and its thunder.
Striking for the gentle, striking for the kind,
Striking for the guardians and protectors of the mind,
And the poet and the painter, far behind his rightful time,
And we gazed upon the chimes of freedom flashing.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at January 29, 2011 12:41 PM | Send