catapult magazine

It is becoming more common for high school English classes to pull out Bob Dylan lyrics or Eminem’s rhymes in order to get students excited about poetry. But are music lyrics the same thing as poetry? Do high school students really catch on to Blake after reading The Boss?

The Beatles often scoffed at the audience’s attempt to find significance in their verse. Because many of their lyrics are just that—verse, they in no way entertained the notion that they should publish their own books of poetry as did Jim Morrison and Jewel. The Beatles obviously thought there was a big difference between what they were doing as songwriters and what someone like Ginsberg was doing as a poet. But what sets them apart? What is that thing (those things) that constitutes true poetry?

I can’t answer your last question. That gets beyond me. I’d like to hear Bills explanation though.
I do think that there is plenty of music out there that can be seen as poetry. I don’t believe that Jim Morrison is an American Poet, and I don’t think that the bulk of rap is legitimate free verse. I do think that in the last 40 years music has merged with literature more than previous times. The Pre-Raphaelites were well known for being universal artists. Dante Gabriel Rossetti would paint a picture of a woman, write a poem and often transpose it to song. Although I can’t hearken anybody today to Rossetti, there are parallels.
Epics used to be the poem of choice in Medieval England. Sonnets became popular in Italy in the 1400’s and England in the 1600’s. Ballads were the poem of choice in the 1800’s. The 20th century brought more blank and free verse. The late 20th century seems to be reducing high literary theory to songs, at least in popularity. There are exceptions of course, but I see it as a bit of another unfortunate example of a smaller attention span hurting artistic integrity (If you read my last theater post). Most would rather listen to a Jewel song than read E.B.Browning. Again there are some good song writers/lyricists.
I just got done with a poetry unit. I introduced it with Music (Cortez the Killer by Neil Young, Born Under a Bad Sign by Hendrix, Father and Son by Cat Stevens, and Silent Night/7 o’clock news by S&G), but told my students that the introduction was only an introduction. Poetry goes beyond most pop music, but it can be used to explain some aspects (internal rhyme, mirroring, ballads, slant rhyme, free verse, blank verse, etc.).
What a ramble. Sorry.

Having worked in four different bookstores, I can tell you that the poetry section is truly a philanthropic enterprise for most bookstores. Just from observation, I’d say poetry sells worse than just about anything else, including quilting and alternative pet books. Which means that poetry is even less relevant than theatre! Who here has read a book of poetry in the last year? Not me. I meant to though.

i’m no expert on the subject of poetry, but as far as the basic form and concept i would venture to say that rap music as well as the lyrics to any song certainly would qualify.

i would also venture to say that, for the most part, this poetry has little to no merit on it’s own.

i was reading an interview with cameron crowe (i believe it was) and he was talking about how in movies you are able to take certain scenes and situations that would, in reality, seem trite or cheesy and make it seem quite believable. he then compared that to the lyrical content of songs.

we buy into the music and the artist that helps ease the validity or in-validity of the lyrics.

it makes sense to me.

I was kinda’ hoping you would bust into “Young MC” Lopez.