The Times They Are A-Changin'
The Times They Are A-Changin'
Original Text
Dylan, Bob. Lyrics, 1962-2001. New York, NY : Simon & Schuster, 2004.
1Come gather 'round people
2Wherever you roam
3And admit that the waters
4Around you have grown
5And accept it that soon
6You'll be drenched to the bone.
7If your time to you
8Is worth savin'
9Then you better start swimmin'
10Or you'll sink like a stone
11For the times they are a-changin'.
12Come writers and critics
13Who prophesize with your pen
14And keep your eyes wide
15The chance won't come again
16And don't speak too soon
17For the wheel's still in spin
18And there's no tellin' who
19That it's namin'.
20For the loser now
21Will be later to win
22For the times they are a-changin'.
23Come senators, congressmen
24Please heed the call
25Don't stand in the doorway
26Don't block up the hall
27For he that gets hurt
28Will be he who has stalled
29There's a battle outside
30And it is ragin'.
31It'll soon shake your windows
32And rattle your walls
33For the times they are a-changin'.
34Come mothers and fathers
35Throughout the land
36And don't criticize
37What you can't understand
38Your sons and your daughters
39Are beyond your command
40Your old road is
41Rapidly agin'.
42Please get out of the new one
43If you can't lend your hand
44For the times they are a-changin'.
45The line it is drawn
46The curse it is cast
47The slow one now
48Will later be fast
49As the present now
50Will later be past
51The order is
52Rapidly fadin'.
53And the first one now
54Will later be last
55For the times they are a-changin'.
Publication Start Year
1963
RPO poem Editors
Ian Lancashire, assisted by Ana Berdinskikh
RPO Edition
2009