Charles McGrath, writing about the book in
The New York Times, described the book as "a close analysis, line by line sometimes, of the master's greatest hits." McGrath praised Ricks for pointing out connections between Dylan's work and other poets and cultural figures that are "surprising and provocative. At various points he compares Mr. Dylan to Marvell, Marlowe, Keats, Tennyson, Hardy, Yeats and Marlon Brando, to cite just a few of his references." McGrath goes on to suggest that some passages in ''Dylan's Visions of Sin'' may strike some readers as over the top, as when Mr. Ricks devotes four pages (and four footnotes) to the lyrics of "All the Tired Horses," a song that is only two lines long—or maybe three, if you count the long "hmmmm" at the end. Other chapters, though, draw insightful and persuasive parallels between, say, "Lay Lady Lay" and John Donne's poem "To His Mistress Going to Bed," between "Not Dark Yet" and Keats's "Ode to a Nightingale," and between "A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall" and the Scottish ballad "Lord Randal." Alison Lewis, reviewing the book in
Library Journal, hailed Ricks' book as "erudite and incisive ... witty and enjoyable, his analysis broadened by comparisons to the poetry of canonical writers like Eliot, Hopkins, and Larkin." The reviewer notes that "[l]iterally hundreds of books have been written about Bob Dylan and his music, but very few have considered his lyrics as works of literature." ==References==