The vagabond represents an opportunity for the woman to help someone else in the same position as she had once been in. She, too, was in the vagabondвЂ™s position, in need of help from others. That the vagabond is dressed вЂin the clothes that you once woreвЂ™ suggests that he and the woman are identical. ItвЂ™s not just the orphan and the vagabond who are one and the same.

Is standing in the clothes that you once woreвЂ™ In each case, perhaps to represent their helplessness, theyвЂ™re shown to be immobile вЂ“ standing : This identity is supported by a similarity in the ways theyвЂ™re described. In a sense the vagabond and the orphan are one and the same at different times вЂ“ the latter representing past failure to care for others, and the former a new opportunity to do so. A vagabond, like an orphan, is someone in need. ThereвЂ™s an obvious similarity between vagabonds and orphans in an uncaring world. The implication seems to be that she can achieve spiritual renewal by assisting the vagabond.Д¬aring for the vagabond would represent the exact opposite of her behaviour so far. ItвЂ™s in this context that the vagabond mentioned in the fourth verse becomes relevant. If sheвЂ™s to avoid spiritual death she needs to act responsibly. This fear of spiritual death gets addressed as the song progresses. Since sheвЂ™s not actually dead, nor in danger of literal death, the images involving the sky and the saints can be seen as an expression of the womanвЂ™s fears of spiritual death. Instead sheвЂ™s in danger of being mown down by a horde of saints. SheвЂ™s imagining, in traditional Christian terms, that sheвЂ™s on the threshold of heaven, but has little chance of being admitted. вЂLook out, the saints are coming throughвЂ™ДЄnd then she becomes aware that sheвЂ™s no longer on earth:ДЄgain the womanвЂ™s no longer merely anticipating death, but imagining sheвЂ™s already dead. ItвЂ™s on this interpretation that the fifth lines of both this verse and the second verse make sense. ThereвЂ™s no time to decide whether the things to be taken will actually last.

The urgency of a need to reform is further enhanced by the phrase вЂyou thinkвЂ¦вЂ™. There are things вЂyou think will lastвЂ™ вЂ“ things of eternal value, which can be a basis for spiritual renewal. Reforming neednвЂ™t require a total rejection of her past. The womanвЂ™s death, then, (if it were to occur) would be spiritual death resulting from a failure to reform. The term вЂorphanвЂ™ perhaps implies a lack of concern for others, an orphan having been deprived of parental care. The child is best seen as the consequences of the womanвЂ™s past life which will in some sense destroy her if she doesnвЂ™t turn her back on them. The orphan need not be a literal child, and the death need not be a literal, physical death. The imminence of the danger, and the need to вЂleave nowвЂ™ is enhanced by her death being presented as having already occurred вЂ“ the child is an вЂorphanвЂ™. However, from what follows in the first verse (in particular the reference to the orphanвЂ™s gun) this opening line would also seem to imply that thereвЂ™s a danger of imminent death at the hands of her child. Taken literally, she is doing no more than deciding on a course of action following the departure of her lover and, presumably, the end of their relationship. вЂYou must leave now, take what you need you think will lastвЂ™ Along the way this outlook moves from depression, back to reality and finally to optimism.ДЇrom the outset the womanвЂ™s state of mind is associated with death and whether her life has been of moral value: It traces the development of her mental outlook from the realisation of her situation at the beginning, to her purposeful response to it at the end. As such the song can be taken as her thoughts as she comes to terms with the change in her life and perhaps achieves some sort of spiritual renewal. Although the woman concerned is being addressed by the narrator, it makes sense to see her for most of the time as addressing herself. Essentially itвЂ™s about the mental state of someone trying to renew their life following what they see as a calamity вЂ“ the breakup of a relationship.

The first thing to say is that thereвЂ™s little reason to see ItвЂ™s All Over Now Baby Blue as вЂaboutвЂ™ an event in DylanвЂ™s life, such as his adopting a new musical style around the time it was written.

Goodbye my baby blue song