Ponder this, Websters definition of Literature -
written works (such as poems, plays, and novels) that are considered to be very good and to have lasting importance
Past the Aztec ruins and the ghosts of our people
Hoofbeats like castanets on stone.
At night I dream of bells in the village steeple
Then I see the bloody face of Ramon.
Up on the white veranda,
She wears a necktie and a Panama hat.
Her passport shows a face
From another time and place
She looks nothin' like that.
And all the remnants of her recent past
Are scattered in the wild wind.
She walks across the marble floor
Where a voice from the gambling room is callin' her to come on in.
She smiles, walks the other way
As the last ship sails and the moon fades away
From Black Diamond Bay.
Dylans level of writing,which he expressed through a music vernacular, was perhaps an authors most direct way to get his ideas/thoughts/visions out to an audience.,
This was not pen to paper writing "Louie,Louie", "She Loves You", "Mrs.Brown You Hav A Lovely Daughter".
His writing influence was such that he set the highest bar for other "song" writers to aspire to.
Lennon/McCartney strove for that in "Working Class Hero/Eleanor Rigbey", The Glimmer Twins - "Sympathy For The Devil", John Prine - "Sam Stone/ Dear Abbie... ;-)", Ray Davies - "Village Green Preservation Society".
For that we are all better. Whether your tastes run towards Willie,Waylon,Johnny - Joni,Lucinda,Rickie Lee-Ronnie VanZandt,Lowell George,Neil, The Grand Old Opry, all of us in the listening audience owe a debt of gratitude for this one mans influence.
rob