The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations Preface

‘Blowin’ in the Wind’ (1962 song)
Through the mad mystic hammering of the wild ripping hail
The sky cracked its poems in naked wonder...
An’ we gazed upon the chimes of freedom flashing.
‘Chimes of Freedom’ (1964 song)
Praise be to Nero’s Neptune
The Titanic sails at dawn
And everybody’s shouting
‘Which Side Are You On?’
And Ezra Pound and T. S. Eliot
Fighting in the captain’s tower
While calypso singers laugh at them
And fishermen hold flowers.
‘Desolation Row’ (1965 song)
I ain’t sayin’ you treated me unkind
You could have done better but I don’t mind
You just kinda wasted my precious time
But don’t think twice, it’s all right.
‘Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right’ (1963 song)
The motorcycle black madonna
Two-wheeled gypsy queen.
‘Gates of Eden’ (1965 song)
I saw ten thousand talkers whose tongues were all broken,
I saw guns and sharp swords, in the hands of young children,
And it’s a hard, and it’s a hard, it’s a hard, it’s a hard,
And it’s a hard rain’s a gonna fall.
‘A Hard Rain’s A Gonna Fall’ (1963 song)
It was gravity which pulled us down and destiny which broke us apart.
‘Idiot Wind’ (1974 song)
Money doesn’t talk, it swears.
‘It’s Alright, Ma (I’m Only Bleeding)’ (1965 song)
My love she speaks softly,
She knows there’s no success like failure
And that failure’s no success at all.
‘Love Minus Zero / No Limit’ (1965 song)
Hey! Mr Tambourine Man, play a song for me.
I’m not sleepy and there is no place I’m going to.
‘Mr Tambourine Man’ (1965 song)
Then take me disappearin’ through the smoke rings of my mind,
Down the foggy ruins of time, far past the frozen leaves,