In recent years, some critics have grown to appreciate "Shot of Love" while others continue to disparage it. If there is any critical consensus, it's to be found on the closing track. Marked by an ethereal quality that is not found elsewhere on "Shot of Love", "Every Grain of Sand" is one of Dylan's most celebrated recordings. In this song, Dylan puzzles over the dilemma of whether his disappointments, temptations, failings, and triumphs were due to his actions alone or ordained by God's delivering hand ("I've gone from rags to riches in the sorrows of the night/In the violence of a summer's dream/In the chill of a winter light" and "I hear the ancient footsteps like the motion of the sea/Sometimes I turn and there's someone there; sometimes it's only me").