

Bob Dylan kept his promise not to accept his Nobel Prize for Literature in person at the Nobel Prize Ceremony. He did send a heartfelt acceptance speech though: "If someone had ever told me that I had the slightest chance of winning the Nobel Prize, I would have to think that I’d have about the same odds as standing on the moon. In fact, during the year I was born and for a few years after, there wasn’t anyone in the world who was considered good enough to win this Nobel Prize. So, I recognize that I am in very rare company, to say the least."

He added, "I was out on the road when I received this surprising news, and it took me more than a few minutes to properly process it."

Horace Engdahl of Nobel Committee said in remarks, "In the most unlikely setting of all - the commercial gramophone record - [Dylan] gave back to the language of poetry its elevated style, lost since the Romantics. Not to sing of eternities, but to speak of what was happening around us. As if the oracle of Delphi were reading the evening news. Recognizing that revolution by awarding Bob Dylan the Nobel Prize was a decision that seemed daring only beforehand and already seems obvious."

The NY Times reports:

Mr. Engdahl’s speech was followed by a fittingly imperfect Patti Smith, who delivered an estimable Dylan impression on his 1963 song, “A Hard Rain’s a-Gonna Fall,” but also proved his inimitable nature, flubbing a lyric and halting the performance midway through. “I’m sorry,” she said before resuming. “I’m so nervous.” Still, some in the audience could be seen crying as she finished the song accompanied by a string section.

The New Yorker's Amanda Petrusich, who was moved to tears, wrote, "The entire performance felt like a fierce and instantaneous corrective to “times like these”—a reiteration of the deep, overwhelming, and practical utility of art to combat pain. In that moment, the mission of the Nobel transcended any of its individual recipients. How plainly glorious to celebrate this work":

The second verse, the one Smith paused on, describes a dystopian nightmare state, a landscape ravaged by a surreal despair: Oh, what did you see, my blue-eyed son?

Oh, what did you see, my darling young one?

I saw a newborn baby with wild wolves all around it

I saw a highway of diamonds with nobody on it

I saw a black branch with blood that kept drippin’

I saw a room full of men with their hammers a-bleedin’

I saw a white ladder all covered with water

I saw ten thousand talkers whose tongues were all broken

I saw guns and sharp swords in the hands of young children

And it’s a hard, and it’s a hard, it’s a hard, it’s a hard

And it’s a hard rain’s a-gonna fall

In the closing words of his acceptance speech, Dylan explained, "Not once have I ever had the time to ask myself, “Are my songs literature?” So, I do thank the Swedish Academy, both for taking the time to consider that very question, and, ultimately, for providing such a wonderful answer."

The nobel speech written by Bob Dylan: pic.twitter.com/PopifJr00Q — Bob Dylan (@Bob41Dylan) December 11, 2016

The Times also pointed out that if Dylan wants to receive the award and the 8 million Swedish krona (around $870,000) that comes with it, he's required to give a lecture on the subject in which he won within six months of the awards ceremony, like all Nobel winners are. So far, there's nothing booked, but in a statement, the Swedish Academy said "there is a chance that Bob Dylan will be performing in Stockholm next year, possibly in the spring in which case he will have a perfect opportunity to deliver his lecture. We will post more information as soon as we have it."