“The itsy bitsy spider went up the water spout…”
From very early in Bob Dylan’s career his song lyrics have been analyzed, interpreted, studied and debated, especially those containing opaque and even surreal imagery. Whether it be a song with obscure lyrics such as Changing of the Guard, or a song as seemingly straightforward as All Along the Watchtower, plenty of ink has been spilled to explain them. (In the internet age this would be digital ink, natch.) What happens when we carry this same habit of sleuthing into the nursery rhymes of our childhood?
It’s fairly well-known that many of the nursery rhymes we learned as toddlers had a background story of one kind or another. By means of Google we can quickly find many of these stories, as well as some entertaining interpretations that were probably absent in the beginning. Here is one of them, an explanation for the meaning of the Itsy Bitsy Spider, an especially cute nursery rhyme when accompanied by the children’s hand gestures emulating the itsy bitsy spider and the rain washing him down out of the water spout.
Lets start with the characters.
The Spider — represents the proletariat (middle class) and his ongoing struggle against the bourgeoisie(upper class)
The Waterspout — represents the myth of equality and the American Dream…
