"Isis" Analysis by Darian

Literary Analysis of “Isis” by Bob Dylan

Some song writers are content with repetitive lyrics and monotonous choruses, but Bob Dylan’s “Isis” is rich with figurative language and narrative verses.  You could say it’s simply a song about a girl, but there is a lot more meaning to be found under the lyrical surface. I think the song is about a person who is in love but is feeling restless,  so he goes off on an adventure to seek the things he believes he’s lacking. What he really finds though, is that what he thought he was missing, he had all along, so he goes back to Isis and she puts him back together.

In the very first verse of the song, the speaker very plainly explains his predicament, “I married Isis on the fifth day of May, But I could not hold on to her very long, So I cut off my hair and I rode straight away, For the wild unknown country where I could not go wrong,” (1-4). He is saying that even though he is in love with Isis, he can’t be tied down. He “cuts off [his] hair and [rides] straight away,” he cuts off the ties to her and responsibilities, and goes to seek adventure. 

There’s a part in the song where the man he met in the town dies while they are chopping through the ice pyramid, and he ends up putting him into the empty tomb he finds (29-38). I think the man tricked him into doing this. I believe this was the man’s plan all along, because he knew he was going to die, and he had nobody. So he deceived the narrator into burying him in the pyramid, because he knew that they wouldn’t find anything. “There was no jewels, no nothin’, I felt I’d been had,  When I saw that my partner was just bein’ friendly, When I took up his offer I musta been mad” I also think that the narrator realizes the error of his ways at the conclusion of this exchange with the old man. He realizes how sad loneliness can be, so he goes back to Isis (39-40).

  The reason why I believe Isis “puts him back together,” is that while I was reading the verses (41-50), I thought about the egyptian myth about Isis and Osiris. Basically Osiris is a god king who gets killed by his brother Seth, and Seth tears his body up into many pieces and scatters them along the Nile River. Isis, who is Osiris’s wife, is very sad but she picks up the pieces and puts them back together so that his spirit can be free. The name Isis is the same in both the song and the myth, so that is why I think there could be a connection.  

“Isis” by Bob Dylan is a song about love and revelation. It’s about a person who believes he needs more than love, but in the end it was love by itself that made him feel fulfilled, not adventure. “I said a quick prayer and I felt satisfied, Then I rode back to find Isis just to tell her I love her....Isis, oh, Isis, you mystical child, What drives me to you is what drives me insane, I still can remember the way that you smiled, On the fifth day of May in the drizzlin‘ rain” (39,40, 48-52). Love is what sets people free, not material things or errant wishes.To quote The Beatles, “All you need is love.” 
Read "Isis" lyrics here.