[1] Critic Andy Gill writes that, in this song, Dylan clumsily idealizes Suze Rotolo, while "viciously characterizing Carla as a pretentious, social-climbing parasite".
[1] "Beneath a bare lightbulb the plaster did pound/ Her sister and I in a screaming battleground/ And she in between, the victim of sound/ Soon shattered as a child to the shadows."
Gill contrasts Dylan's inability to handle such personal material successfully with his ability to "wax lyrical about more abstract philosophical concerns such as the state of society and the nature of freedom".
[1] Clinton Heylin claims that Dylan wrote a rough outline of "Ballad in Plain D" soon after the events.
In May 1964, he stayed in the Greek village of Vernilya (possibly Vouliagmeni), working on songs for his next album; there he drew out the material to the lengthy ballad he recorded in June 1964.