I Pity the Poor Immigrant

"[16] Across three verses, Dylan outlines what Gill describes as the subject's "propensity to strive for evil ... lying, cheating, greed, self-loathing, uncharitableness and ruthlessness", possibly satirically.

[17][18] The lyrics feature phrases such as "strength spent in vain" "heaven [as] iron" and "eats but is not satisfied" which closely match the Book of Leviticus, Chapter 26, verses 20, 19, and 26.

[19] Critic Oliver Trager believes that "essence of [the Biblical] references is that God punishes those who do not obey the Ten Commandments by turning them into immigrants and casting them into a threatening environment", and that the lyrics "finds Dylan playing with the conflicting instincts driving his song's title character".

[20] Journalist Paul Williams wrote that Dylan's delivery and music show him as an "empathetic (human) observer" rather than the voice of the Old Testament version of God,[21] but Harvey Kubernik concluded in Goldmine that "the 'speaker' of the song likely is Christ"[22]

"[23] Time called it a melancholy portrait of a misanthropic, malcontented wanderer", citing the lyric "who passionately hates his life and likewise fears his death.

"[24] In The Guardian, Neil Spencer felt that it has an "enigmatic mix of empathy and judgment"[25] Gordon Mills wrote in Rolling Stone that Dylan"suggests the immense sympathy he has for those who have dared to cut the rope and be free from the life of being one, 'who lies with every breath, who passionately hates himself, and likewise fears his death.' ...

"[26] Scholar of English David Punter wrote that it is unclear who the audience that the narrator of the song addresses are, but that the lyrics seem to be "less about a concern for the immigrant himself than about the plight into which his situation places all of us".

"[27]Punter considers that the verse which contains "fills his mouth with laughing / And who builds his town with blood" relates to the trope of the immigrant rather than a more literal interpretation, and that it serves to uncover "a whole series of associations which remind us of a complex history of violence, of defamiliarization".

Jamie Atkins of Record Collector magazine wrote that this version "gallops along – compared to the original it's practically a head-shaking beat group rave-up.

[45] Baez's version was described as "mediocre" by Robb Baker of the Chicago Tribune,[46] and as "shrill and strained" by Ralph J. Gleason in The San Francisco Examiner.

[48] Marty Ehrlich's 2001 version on his album Song was called "a slow bluesy meander that grows gently funkier" by John Fordham in The Guardian.

Patrick Humphries, writing for BBC Music, described her version of "I Pity the Poor Immigrant" as "a poignant testament to the untold millions who passed through Ellis Island".