Did Bob Dylan plagiarise parts of his Nobel Prize speech from SparkNotes?

There was initially some confusion over quotes from a book that didn't appear to actually be in it

(Getty)

In a Nobel Lecture given on 4 June in response to his win of the Nobel Prize for Literature, Bob Dylan discussed the influence of three books from his childhood: The Odyssey, All Quiet on the Western Front, and Moby-Dick.

It seems he might have needed a refresher on them though, as Slate has found myriad similarities between the way Dylan recounted the events of the books in his lecture and the summaries of them on student revision site SparkNotes.

It was soon spotted that 'quotes' uttered by the musician can't be found in the books, and this report could explain where they came from.

For example, Dylan recounted how a Quaker pacifist priest fells Flask in Moby-Dick: "Some men who receive injuries are led to God, others are led to bitterness." There is no line like this in Herman Melville's novel, but SparkNotes' character list does describe the preacher as “someone whose trials have led him toward God rather than bitterness.”

Slate made a graphic (below) outlining the similarities; you can read the piece in full here.

Dylan has priors in terms of alleged plagiarism, having previously been accused of it by Joni Mitchell.

Dylan's full lecture can be found in written and audio form here.