The line between lyrics and poetry

[danecobain]

Recently, I've been wondering about how people differentiate between song lyrics and poetry. A lot of people say that Bob Dylan is a poet, and although I'm a massive Dylan fan, I wouldn't agree. However, I *would* say that he's more of a poet than Lady Gaga or Beyonce, (or whoever writes their lyrics for them :P)

So what would you say makes a set of lyrics in to a poem?

For me, it's to do with the delivery - there's a band called King Missile that basically back their singer as he tells stories in a (usually) deadpan voice, and I'd consider their lyrics to be poetry:

King Missile - Eating People: Link (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VeDLzTObXFY&feature=related)
King Missile - Detachable Penis: Link (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=byDiILrNbM4)


There's also a song by a Scottish singer-songwriter that I like called Carry Me, that I'd consider poetic - Link (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9U7OhLCnn3Q)


Anyway, I'd be interested to hear some other opinions! If you'd like to post some links or whatever to back yourself up, that would be great - I'd love to listen to some more poetic music, but I have no idea what to look for!

[BenJohnson]

This is one of those topics that I am always divided on. Obviously poetry was originally words to music, then later on divided from being lyrics to being a form of their own. The words themselves carried the rhythm within them. In more recent time even the need for rhythm has been removed. I hear many people labelling singers as poets, though for me poetry contains hieghtened language in which words are not only used for their meanings but for their sounds and power of combinations. Not that poetry can remain totally divorced from music, many poems have been taken from the written page and put to music. In more recent years beat poetry has become very popular which is fairly close to rap. I think if the lyrics are more than just words, but are carefully crafted then they are something close to poetry, if not poetry.

A couple of links, Anne Clark who used to write poems which she later put to music and John Cale who put some of Dylan Thomas' poems to music

Hope Road - Anne Clark (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Khx9P4LiGM)
Do not go gentle into that good night - John Cale (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=maISWZ8Tpsc)

[danecobain]

Ooooh, I was a bit ambivalent about the Anne Clark video (I liked her poetry but not her voice :P), but I loved the John Cale video - it was just a shame about the sound quality :(

I love beat poetry and can see what you're saying - me and a good friend of mine keep talking about getting a few people together to do a beat-style poetry circle, but it's more like a line when there's just two of you. It can be interesting to just google the lyrics of a song and to read them aloud

[Ike]

I'll give this a go. my understanding and what I teach my students is that poetry is made from lyrics...the words that paint the picture and induce feeling.. Songs are also written in lyrics...they also paint the picture and feeling there. What makes them different is not simple because all songs begin with lyrics. If they don't they are just music. Some poems are songs. A poem must adhere to the rules by which it is written and if it needs a meter...have one. That would be mostly in Rhyming poetry but can apply to others. lyrics for a song however can be adjusted by the melody. It is divided into beats and the writer determines how long that beat/word is held.