As lovers they are not on the same track. These two trains should go to the West but they are in fact running to the East, they are running ‘down the eastern line’and that may be the source of alienation and separation between the two lovers. The words 'down the eastern line' may simply mean that this train is running down the East coast (the East coast of the US for example) but the poet may also have thought of the direction in which this train is running.From the words ‘down the eastern line’one may conclude that right now the poet feels that these two trains are not running in the right direction. When we take this into account within the context of the song, the number ‘forty’ may mean that although they are having a hard time in their love relationship, this predetermined period of tribulation and alienation, underlined by the number ‘forty’will come to an end and a final decision about the final direction and destination of this love train still has to be made. Some examples: During the sin flood it rained for forty days and nights, the people of Israel had to wander in the desert for forty years before they were finally allowed to enter the promised land of Canaan, Jesus was tempted by the devil in the desert for forty days. The number ‘forty’ stands in the Bible for a fixed, predetermined and yet limited period time of tribulation, judgment and temptation. There is a distance, a gap of forty miles between those two trains. This is expressed when it says that the two trains running side by side are running ‘forty miles wide’. Lost paradise will be regained.Īlthough there is a certain degree of unity and harmony between the two lovers when the poet writes : ‘Two trains running side by side’, at the same time, there is also a deep rift, a large gap between the two lovers, between the two trains. Perfect harmony will be restored between all the chosen players on the world scene, between Eve and Adam, between man and woman and between Christ and His bride.
#Jimmy swaggart wasted years full
And in the song ‘Duquesne Whistle’ he, full of rejoice, adds that his time his woman will be on board of that train: ‘Listen to that Duquesne whistle blowing, blowing like my woman's on board’. This idea is expressed when he wrote in that song: ‘The sun is shining, ain't but one train on this track’. In Dylan’s rewritten version of ‘Gonna change my way of thinking ‘ (2002) he mediates on the fact that one day harmony in love relationships will be restored and from that day on it will be only one train, not two trains, heading in the right direction. The feeling still lingers that actually it should be only one train and not two trains. The lovers, the two trains, have a certain degree of unity because they run ‘side by side’This fragile unity is also shown by the fact that these two trains are heading in one and thee same direction and that is ‘down the eastern line’. The words ‘ Two trains running side by side’make it clear that there is a love covenant here between two people, a love relationship in which they share their lives. This rift, this brokenness, would from then on define and burden all future human relationships. A rift between the first two people on earth, Eve and Adam. Oh you don't have to go, I just came to you because you're a friend of mine’ shows that the oasis of good will expressed by the words 'Come back baby, if I hurt your feelings, I apologize’ cannot take away or conceal the rift which the downfall of man has caused in history. The next verse: ‘Two trains running side by side, forty miles wide, down the eastern line. In this final part of my analysis we continue where we left off part 2. Bob Dylan's 'Long and Wasted Years' - an analysis - Part 3 (of 3)īob Dylan’s ‘Long and Wasted Years’ – an analysis – Part 3 (of 3) by Kees de Graaf.
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