 Like many of the songs on Highway 61 Revisited , " Just Like Tom Thumb 's Blues " has abundant literary references , including images recalling Malcolm Lowry 's novel Under the Volcano and a street name taken from Edgar Allan Poe 's short story " The Murders in the Rue Morgue " . The song also uses the phrase " housing project hill " which is taken from Jack Kerouac 's novel Desolation Angels . A number of Dylan biographers , including Colin Irwin , Robert Shelton and Andy Gill , have suggested that the song 's title makes reference to Arthur Rimbaud 's poem " My Bohemian Life ( Fantasy ) " , in which Rimbaud refers to himself as " Tom Thumb in a daze . " In addition , some commentators have suggested that there may be a musical reference in the lines " And she takes your voice / And leaves you howling at the moon , " since " Howlin ' at the Moon " is the title of a song by Hank Williams , a musician who Dylan admired . 
