CymryPoetry and Lyrics
April 12th 2008 00:12
Lyrics of a song are not just random words strung together to make a pretty sound. As with any section of a musical piece, they have their own specific structure. Split into verses, often with a bridge, lyrics have a rhythm and metre in the same way a poem is broken into stanzas and has a rhythm and metre. But does that make lyrics poetry?
Both forms of writing can rhyme, but this is not a necessary writing tool for either. Most often lyrics are more inclined to rhyme than a poem will be, and personally I think this has more to do with it making life easier on the musician and the audience than from any real 'rule of songwriting.' A rhymed sound is rounded to the ear, and symmetry is something that I have noticed human beings find preferable. But a rhyme, rhythm and metre do not a poem make; and truely enough the same can be said in reverse. So are they the same or different?
Muddied though the waters seem, I feel exploration allows us to draw some kind of conclusion. Whilst I believe that personally the two have a lot in common and yet are intrinsically different, I'd like to utilise the next couple of articles to look at both poetry and lyrics (in a light, general sort of way) and see where it takes me on the musicality road.
With any luck it will bring a bit of clarity and possibly also a smile into our lives when we sit and listen, really listen, to what a song is trying to say.
To be continued!
Both forms of writing can rhyme, but this is not a necessary writing tool for either. Most often lyrics are more inclined to rhyme than a poem will be, and personally I think this has more to do with it making life easier on the musician and the audience than from any real 'rule of songwriting.' A rhymed sound is rounded to the ear, and symmetry is something that I have noticed human beings find preferable. But a rhyme, rhythm and metre do not a poem make; and truely enough the same can be said in reverse. So are they the same or different?
Muddied though the waters seem, I feel exploration allows us to draw some kind of conclusion. Whilst I believe that personally the two have a lot in common and yet are intrinsically different, I'd like to utilise the next couple of articles to look at both poetry and lyrics (in a light, general sort of way) and see where it takes me on the musicality road.
With any luck it will bring a bit of clarity and possibly also a smile into our lives when we sit and listen, really listen, to what a song is trying to say.
To be continued!
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