Did Dylan take words from poet?

An American author and radio DJ claim musical legend Bob Dylan borrowed lines from a nineteenth century poet in some of his songs.

Walter Cisco, who wrote the biography of poet Henry Timrod, and New Mexico disc jockey Scott Warmuth have noted several instances where Dylan's lyrics closely resemble lines in Timrod's works.

One example given is in Dylan's song When the Deal Goes Down in which he sings: "Where wisdom grows up in strife," which mirrors a line in Timrod's poem A Rhapsody of a Southern Winter Night, which reads: "There is wisdom that grows up in strife."

Cisco says of the similarities: "It's amazing. There is no question that is where it came from. It's too much to be a coincidence.

"I'm just delighted that Timrod is getting some recognition."

DJ Warmuth, who claims to have found 10 instances of similar wording on Dylan's latest album Modern Times, tells the New York Times: "I think that's the way Bob Dylan has always written songs. It's part of the folk process, if you look from his first album to now."

However Warmuth still insists Dylan's work is original.

He adds: "You could give the collected works of Henry Timrod to a bunch of people but none of them are going to come up with Bob Dylan songs."

Although considered a minor poet of his time, Henry Timrod, born in 1828, was described as the Poet Laureate of the Confederacy by Alfred Lord Tennyson.

Timrod died in 1867 of tuberculosis.