Bob Dylan is set for a blast from the past, with a poem he wrote when only sixteen due to be auctioned for charity.
Rock’s poet laureate, Bob Dylan is renowned as one of the finest lyricists in popular music. From his early works of social conscious, right up to recent album ‘Together Through Life’ Bob Dylan has confounded expectations and broken new ground.
However everyone has to start somewhere. Real name Robert Zimmerman, a new poem has emerged which was apparently written when Dylan was only sixteen.
Titled ‘Little Buddy’ the poem features socially conscious verses which detail the story of a dog who dies at the hands of a drunken man. The new poem was apparently written when Bob Dylan was attending Herzl Camp in Webster, Wisconsin in the summer of 1957.
Published in the camp’s newspaper, the-then editor Lisa Heilicher has held onto the poem for more than fifty years but has now decided to sell the original copy to support the camp’s $8 million capital campaign.
Associated Press reports the charity worker as saying “I kept it with all of my stuff that I collected from camp.”
“When I realised how famous he had become, I put it in a piece of plastic and stuck it in an encyclopedia”.
A verse from the poem reads:
“He was such a lovely doggy/ And to me he was such fun/ But today as we played by the way/ A drunken man got mad at him/ Because he barked in joy/ He beat him and he’s dying here today.”
Due to be put up for auction in Christie’s the poem is valued between $20,000 and $30,000. Other items relating to the singer include an early version of the lyrics to protest song ‘With God On Our Side’ as well as a copy of Bob Dylan’s High School Yearbook – which claimed he was soon to join Little Richard.
The legendary singer released his new album ‘Together Through Life’ earlier this year. Another fascinating instalment in a vastly influential career, the album was followed by a number of British tour dates. Click HERE to read what we made of his recent show in London’s intimate Roundhouse venue.
The auction is set to take place in New York on June 23rd.
