Can Song Lyrics Be Considered Poetry?

Can song lyrics be poetry?

With out a doubt lyrics include poetic components, but whether or not they would have the exact same impact and energy as pure poetry written down on paper Without having musical accompaniment and vocal overall performance, is one more matter. The answer is possibly not, even so, as we know poetry started as an oral tradition, and in the medieval era there would have been no distinction amongst the lyrics of a ballad and the composition of a poem. In truth a 'ballad' is now each a recognised poetic form (quatrains of abab rhyme scheme in alternating iambic trimetre and tetrameter) and the term utilised to describe a slow, typically romantic, song.

Not too long ago a band, "The Waterboys", released an album referred to as "An Appointment with Mr Yeats", in which fourteen of Yeats's poems are set to music. The outcome is utter brilliance. The organic cadences and rhythms of the poems are applied to generate musical melodies: specially in such poems as "The Hosting of the Shee" in which the driving dactylic fits completely to a pulsing drum-beat. In this instance it is actually the case that the lyrics of the songs are established poetry, sung and accompanied instrumentally, displaying that it is totally attainable for lyrics to have poetical devices and types as effectively as robust melody and rhythm.

Surely not all lyrics will have equal formal distinction as the poetry of Yeats, but a lot of song lyrics are composed to make onomatopoeic effects. In the song "Invincible" by Muse, from their album "Black Holes and Revelations" the lyrics are largely composed in best trochaic, i.e. a pressure followed by a un-pressure producing up one 'foot' of metre:

Fóllow thróugh
Máke your dréams come trúe
Dón't give úp the fíght
Yóu will bé al-ríght

The trochaic creates a tumbling rhythm that momentously moves on, merely like the topic in this song is getting told to hold going and not "give up". This is aided by the basic aabb rhyme scheme.

Very good lyrics have a same impact to poetry in their formal tactics: on the other hand, a different vital component of poetry is the image and the metaphor. But quite a few songs also employ metaphor and imagery: Led Zeppelin's renowned (and infamous) song "Stairway to Heaven" describes a lady who is "...acquiring a stairway to heaven." a line that just has to be metaphorical, provided its symbolic surrealism. The brilliance of the song is realised when the line: "You know often words have two meanings" is sung, inviting us to consider twice at the words we are hearing.

Eventually I consider there can be no absolute selection. Some lyrics are constructed effectively adequate to rise to the level of poeticism, whereas other individuals are only provided energy by means of their overall performance and their accompaniment.

Joe Sale is a writer and student at the Univeristy of Birmingham. He has written and published two books so far: 'Dark Age Heroes' and 'Z.A.'

To uncover out additional about him go to his web site at: [http://www.taliesinbooks.com]

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