Poetry and pop

This just perplexes me. I find a lot of difference between the rhythm of poetry and the rhythm of words set to time of a musical beat. I'm writing because of an article in The Times about new indie bands and the lyrics of some of their songs. I'd written before about how difficult I'd found poetry reading and writing at school though I have to say I did write a long poem based on the style of Omar Khayan's Rubaiyat. But apart from that all my other efforts tended to head for the Edward Lear school of rhyme because I just used to feel a kind of bewilderment when faced with most poetry and found it almost impossible to write no matter how often the mechanics of sonnets etc were explained to me. But stick me infront of Folk Songs Of Europe or it's equivalent with work that came from the same eras as some of the poetry and I was content. I guess it had something to do with the way the work was expressed to fit into certain contexts. Also I guess with lots of music there's a great difference in how the medium is there to connect with people as it comes in from different expression both for the listener and artist than the wording of poetry.

Hey nonny no.

Occasionally poetry is put to music as in Van Morrison's version of Dylan Thomas's Do Not Go Gentle. Donovan has done that too quite recently. The only track I didn't like on the album, Beat Cafe.

I'm afraid I don't like the poem and it doesn't seem to matter to me that it's now been set to music. So maybe with me things just stand as they are. And I really like Van Morrison's and Donovan's music on the whole.

Some of the music that's attracted me in later years as far as lyrics go is rap which could be seen as a sort of cross between poetry/lyrics/prose. In it's many different forms it seems to mix everything in it's expression. Unfortunately the really amazing rap doesn't do as well as the sensation seeking type that sells so much better. There is some really deep and soulful rap out there that is really wonderful.

I can't say anything about the Artic Monkeys because I don't have any of their albums so for newer bands/artists lyrics I'll choose The Doves because I've got some of their music on cd and dvd. Because I'm older now I have to ferret around the younger people I know to get more information. I don't listen to much radio now so I'm just lucky if I hear something I like.

But verses like The Doves

You break me gently
Break me gently
Break me gently

Break my fall in vain
Pain won't go, rest in peace
And I look, and I see you could be breaking souls again.


Shows that there's depth in the lyrics.


This type of music is being taken notice of again. I know that nearly all music gets slammed at some time or other, it's just the way of things but indie bands really did have a bad time of it for a while didn't they. But people are more interested in playing guitar again and it's going to be really interesting to hear the future.