A wilted brown tulip stands beside a glass bell jar containing a wisp of cloud and a floating paper moon, on a mauve background.

Original artwork, not a still

Bob Dylan

I am against nature. I don’t dig nature at all. I think nature is very unnatural. I think the truly natural things are dreams, which nature can’t touch with decay.

Behind the line

What it means

Our interpretation.

The speaker reverses the usual preference for what is natural, rejecting a world where things decay in favour of dreams that nature cannot spoil. Calling dreams 'truly natural' turns the familiar word inside out, making imagination seem more desirable than the physical world.

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