BOSTON, July 21 (UPI) -- A Boston scholar who wrote a 500-page book examining Bob Dylan's lyrics, compares the folk singer to literary masters such as Shakespeare.
Christopher Ricks, professor of English and director of the Editorial Institute at Boston University, has written "Dylan's Visions of Sin," published by Ecco, ABC reported Wednesday.
In the book, Ricks examines Dylan's songs as they relate to sins, virtues and graces.
Ricks is comfortable comparing Dylan to literary icons, saying his study makes a case that Dylan's work stands up next to the poetry of Shakespeare and T.S. Eliot.
"I resist the idea that I have some kind of monomania. But I've listened to (Dylan) for 35 years and nobody else comes home with the same poignancy," Ricks said.
Ricks, a former English professor at universities of Bristol and Cambridge universities in Britain, has written studies on poet masters John Milton, John Keats, Samuel Beckett and Eliot.
