For a lot of people he epitomized a feeling and a time. His work is poetical, and like all poetry, sometimes it sings to you, sometimes it doesn’t. I remember as a younger man, hearing
[i]
How many roads must a man walk down
Before you call him a man? …
How many years can a mountain exist
Before it’s washed to the sea?
Yes, ‘n’ how many years can some people exist
Before they’re allowed to be free?
Yes, ‘n’ how many times can a man turn his head,
Pretending he just doesn’t see?
The answer, my friend, is blowin’ in the wind,
The answer is blowin’ in the wind.[/i]
http://www.bobdylan.com/songs/blowin.html
Come mothers and fathers
Throughout the land
And don’t criticize
What you can’t understand
Your sons and your daughters
Are beyond your command
Your old road is
Rapidly agin’.
Please get out of the new one
If you can’t lend your hand
For the times they are a-changin’.
http://www.bobdylan.com/songs/times.html
and these songs just hitting me at the right moment. I think it’s that way with a lot of people. His poetry hit them at a moment and time when they were feeling the same.