In this month’s episode of the Project Narrative Podcast, Brian McHale, Distinguished Professor of English at the Ohio State University and one of the founders of Project Narrative, sits down with Jim Phelan to discuss a series of poems that contain significant narrative gaps. The poems discussed include a Hebrew nursery rhyme entitled, “Yonatan Hakatan,” a British border ballad called “When I Was on Horseback,” a Spanish poem by Federico García Lorca called “Rider’s Song,” and Bob Dylan’s lyric, “All Along the Watchtower.”

“When I Was on Horseback” (traditional; as recorded by Steeleye Span, 1972)

Einojuhani Rautavaara’s setting, with lyrcis, from his “Lorca Suite” (1973)

Bob Dylan, “All Along the Watchtower,” from John Wesley Harding (1967)

Jimi Hendrix’s cover version of “Watchtower” (1968)