Tony Beck, who wrote his dissertation for Cambridge University on Bob Dylan, notes that Dylan “borrowed extensively” from the English poets Coleridge, Wordsworth, Shelley and Bryon, who also used the “wind” as a central image in their poems. For them, the wind often symbolized change and freedom. It probably shouldn’t be a surprise that the man who won the Nobel Prize for Literature can sometimes “sounds like a professor of literature” when discussing the works of other poets. These English poets valued intuition, nature, freedom and rebellion – all of which feature prominently in Dylan’s work, especially during the earlier decades.
Beck, Tony. Understanding Bob Dylan: Making Sense of the Songs that Changed Modern Music. CreativeSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2011, p. 104.