No. They're song lyrics. They're written for a different reason than poetry--to accompany music. This doesn't devalue lyrics in contrast to poetry. It's what they are.
No. They're song lyrics. They're written for a different reason than poetry--to accompany music. This doesn't devalue lyrics in contrast to poetry. It's what they are.
*touches his nose* that's what I'm thinkin'.Originally Posted by Mutatis-Mutandis
“Oh crap”
-- Hellboy
You know She walks in beauty like the night.... etc, It was written to accompany music too.
There is only one real difference between lyrical song writing and poetry. With a song's lyrics it's important to fit the words into the rhythm of the music, in order to properly compose the piece. Because of this you sometimes have to sacrifice even lines that flow to the lips alone in order to have them bounce around musical notes. Rhyming is also important for a lot of songs, where it doesn't always read well in poetry, it helps a lot in a song's flow.
However, if you take a well written song and do some trimming and a small amount of editing, it's not difficult to compose a poem.
But, if done well, a song's lyrics serve the same purpose as a poem. All the instruments played in a band, even if it's just one person and a banjo, are stand alone. They are just modified to work together. It's hard to say it isn't a form of poetry.
Last edited by Revolte; 07-17-2012 at 07:40 PM.
It depends on the country and culture. A place like Greece tends to place importance on lyrical quality before music is added. I'd put up a link but you'd mostly get rough translations from the originals. Perhaps look at Doc Heart's poems and see how easily they could be put to music, they're almost demanding it.
Take a string of characters. Create four pigeon holes. Call one "poetry". Call another "prose". For the jibberish, call one pigeon hole "neither poetry nor prose". For the confused, call the last one "both poetry and prose". The task at hand is to put all possible strings into one of the these four pigeon holes.
Suppose the lyricists don't want to be associated with the poets. Or the poets think they are too good for the lyricists. Then create another set of pigeon holes and call one "lyric". Now neither the lyricists nor the poets will be embarrassed with being in the same pigeon hole.
Then it's a lyric. I'm not sure what your point is (maybe you're not even trying to explicitly make one). Plenty of poets have written lyrics knowingly, and labeled them as such. All that means is that the poet feels there is a musical (or lyrical) quality to the poem that may lend itself to music. I'm thinking some poets labeled them as such in hopes that a musician would combine the lyrics to a song; maybe the poet wasn't a musician and didn't feel up to the task. If he was, in the case of that lyric, he'd go beyond being a poet and become a song-writer.
Merriam-Webster's definition of "lyric," as an adjective is interesting in the context of this discussion:
1 a : suitable for singing to the lyre or for being set to music and sung
So it looks like the very word "lyric" comes from "lyre."
So, if some of you want to stick to your guns and say lyrics are poetry, fine, but one must at least say it's a lyrical poem, since it's intended use is for it to be set to music.
Also, when is the last time you've ever heard a musician say they're writing a poem, as in "I'm writing poetry for my newest song"? Never. They always write lyrics. If they do write poems, as many musicians have done, they are published as such.
I think this topic is being made more complicated than it needs to be. A poem is a poem. A lyric is a poem intended for music. The end.
No, song lyrics are not poetry. Poetry is not poetry. There is no such thing as poetry.
J
No, lyrical poetry is a genre. The name is related to the "Lyre", but plenty of lyrical poems are never intented to be followed by music Today is a reference to emotive poems, instropective, etc. Narrative poems like Epics were also meant to be oral in the past, but this is besides the point.
The point was that She walks in beauty is widely reckonized as a poem, nobody denies it and was writen to be followed by music. Not with the hope of such thing happening, it was intented as such, the very first edition came with musical settings. Byron wrote it just like any song lyric writer do today.
Therefore being writen to be in music or being a lyric is not something that exclude poetry and if it is writen, will be read as a poem. And can be still lyrical even never gets in music or any intention to do it.
But that is different. Albeit it happens, usually musicians write a lyrical piece as part of the process of producing a music and indeed, even guys like Leonard Cohen say they are different, mostly because as you say, they are not meant to be printed to be read and they work with the limitations of a music. Yet, Bob Dylan or Lou Reed have song lyrics published in books to be read as poems. Several Medieval stories were musical pieces, no more sung, but read. Carmina Burana for example goes back and forth.Also, when is the last time you've ever heard a musician say they're writing a poem, as in "I'm writing poetry for my newest song"? Never. They always write lyrics. If they do write poems, as many musicians have done, they are published as such.
Obviously you can argue, those "poems" lack something. But calling the writen lyrics of song of poems is far from awkward.
I can't tell if you're disagreeing with what I've said or not, or trying to, because it looks like you've said pretty much what I've said.
Most national anthems were poems originally. If poems are turned into songs, then the lyrics of those songs are poems. "Ice Ice Baby" is definitely not a poem. I don't know if it's even a song.
"Writing is a struggle against silence."
--Carlos Fuentes
So we are not allowed to call Homer a poet, and now we must call him a lyricist?
If that ain't poetry, than a cadillac ain't a car...
(Is that you, Bobby Bare ?)
"Minstrel In The Gallery", by Jethro Tull
The minstrel in the gallery looked down upon the smiling faces.
He met the gazes --- observed the spaces between the
old men's cackle.
He brewed a song of love and hatred --- oblique
suggestions --- and he waited.
He polarized the pumpkin-eaters --- static-humming
panel-beaters --- freshly day-glow'd factory cheaters
(salaried and collar-scrubbing).
He titillated men-of-action --- belly warming, hands
still rubbing on the parts they never mention.
He pacified the nappy-suffering, infant-bleating
one-line jokers --- T.V. documentary makers
(overfed and undertakers).
Sunday paper backgammon players --- family-scarred
and women-haters.
Then he called the band down to the stage and he
looked at all the friends he'd made.
The minstrel in the gallery looked down on the
rabbit-run.
And threw away his looking-glass - saw his face in
everyone.
You can call him whatever the hell you want. I don't care that much. I was just answering the questions presented.
I think, Lyrics can be poetry if the writer wants it to be. For some of us,
"A Whiter Shade of Pale" by Procol Harum is sheer poetry...
We skipped the light fandango
Turned cartwheels 'cross the floor
I was feeling kinda seasick
But the crowd called out for more
The room was humming harder
As the ceiling flew away
When we called out for another drink
And the waiter brought a tray
And so it was that later
As the miller told his tale
That her face, at first just ghostly,
Turned a whiter shade of pale
She said, "There is no reason
And the truth is plain to see."
But I wandered through my playing cards
And they would not let her be
One of sixteen vestal virgins
Who were leaving for the coast
And although my eyes were open wide
They might have just as well been closed
And so it was that later
As the miller told his tale
That her face, at first just ghostly,
Turned a whiter shade of pale
She said, "I'm here on a shore leave,"
Though we were miles at sea.
I pointed out this detail
And forced her to agree,
Saying, "You must be the mermaid
Who took King Neptune for a ride."
And she smiled at me so sweetly
That my anger straightway died.
And so it was that later
As the miller told his tale
That her face, at first just ghostly,
Turned a whiter shade of pale
If music be the food of love
Then laughter is it's queen
And likewise if behind is in front
Then dirt in truth is clean
My mouth by then like cardboard
Seemed to slip straight through my head
So we crash-dived straightway quickly
And attacked the ocean bed
And so it was that later
As the miller told his tale
That her face, at first just ghostly,
Turned a whiter shade of pale...
for others it's pure Kitsch.
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