"Isis" Analysis by Skyla

           Bob Dylan wrote a song called Isis, the song could represent a lot of different things. I think it’s about the speaker’s relationship with Isis and all the battles they fought through together. The speaker talks about how his relationship with Isis was a constant battle and how he had to get away from it all for a while and find himself again.

            The speaker and Isis got married on the 5^th of May, but he couldn’t seem to keep her for long. Once he lost Isis he took off and tried becoming a new person by changing himself.   The speaker thought he couldn’t do anything right, so he wanted to go someplace where he could do no wrong. Along his journey to find this place the speaker ran across a strange man who wanted to take him amongst the hills for a treasure hunt. The strange man promised the speaker that they would be back by the fourth.

            When they set off for their journey the speaker was thinking about the world’s biggest necklace and diamonds and how Isis always thought he was so reckless. The speaker is trying to figure out what went wrong in his  marriage and how he could get her back, once the speaker and the strange man find the treasure the speaker would take it back to Isis and prove to her he is worth something. Along the journey the strange man died and left the speaker to finish this journey on his own. Once the speaker ran across the treasure there really wasn’t a treasure nothing but an empty casket.  He was confused on what this journey was about all along and what the man’s reasoning behind all this was. The speaker took the man and put him in the closed casket and thanked him for making him realize his life at home with Isis wasn’t as bad as he thought and he was the happiest when he was around his wife whom he loved and cared about.

            The speaker set back on his journey and started to return home.  All the way home the speaker thought about what Isis said to him before he left, “ they would one day meet again and everything would be different next time they met up again”(22). The speaker wanted everything to be different with Isis and be together and stay together and to never have this kind of problem again.

            In conclusion I think this song represents’ a struggled marriage and how the speaker made a mistake and realized that along his journey. That he had the best thing at home waiting for him and he loved her more then anything in the world. This journey helped the speaker find himself and wake him up and make him realize that Isis wasn’t trying to make it seem like he did everything wrong that she just wanted them to work together along there own kind of journey.

Read "Isis" lyrics here.