The Groom's Still Waiting at the Altar

Prayed in the ghetto with my face in the cement,

Heard the last moan of a boxer, seen the massacre of the innocent,

Felt around for the light switch, felt around for her face,

Been treated like a farm animal on a wild-goose chase.

West of the Jordan, east of the Rock of Gibraltar,

I see the turning of the page, curtain rising on a new age,

See the groom still waiting at the altar.

Try to be pure at heart, they arrest you for robbery,

Mistake your shyness for aloofness, your silence for snobbery.

Got the message this morning, the one that was sent to me

'Bout the madness of becoming what one was never meant to be.

West of the Jordan, east of the Rock of Gibraltar,

I see the turning of the page, curtain rising on a new age,

See the groom still waiting at the altar.

Don't know what I could say about Claudette wouldn't come back to haunt me,

Finally had to give her up 'bout the time she begin to want me,

But I know God has mercy on them who're slandered and humiliated,

I'd a-done anything for that woman if she'd only made me feel obligated.

West of the Jordan, east of the Rock of Gibraltar,

I see the turning of the page, curtain rising on a new age,

See the groom still waiting at the altar.

Put your hand on my head, baby, do I have a temperature?

I see people who're supposed to know better standing around like furniture,

There's a wall between you––what you want¹ and you got to leap it:

Tonight you got the power to take it, tomorrow you won't have the power to keep it.

West of the Jordan, east of the Rock of Gibraltar,

I see the turning of the page, curtain rising on a new age,

See the groom still waiting at the altar.

Cities on fire, phones outta order,

They're killing nuns and soldiers, there's fighting on the border.

What can I say about Claudette? Ain't seen her since January.

She could be respectably married or running a whorehouse in Buenos Aires.

West of the Jordan, east of the Rock of Gibraltar,

I see the turning of the page, curtain rising on a new age,

See the groom still waiting at the altar.

¹ While Dylan never sings the word "and" between "you" and "what you want", it's clear that those are the two objects of "between".