.

When Poems Are Lyrics and Vice Versa

by James A. Tweedie

Lyrics are poems written to join with music to form a unity in the hope that the two together will transcend what either the words or music can achieve by themselves, alone.

Sometimes, the music is composed first and the lyrics written to fit the music, and sometimes it is the other way around. But either way, if done well, the music and lyrics act to intensify the emotion or essence of both.

Opera, whether Light or Grand, represents the highest and most refined of this melding of the two arts.
Musicals, such as those produced on Broadway, merge the music and lyrics to highlight a scene or move the plot forward. And, in the best of popular music (representing any number of genres), lyrics and music can at times become so seamlessly joined that the words and music become inseparable from one another. I could give examples of each of these observations but will refrain, finding such unnecessary since I am confident that you, the reader, will be able to come up with more than a few compelling examples of your own!

It is true, of course, that many, if not most, lyrics fall miserably short of standing alone as poetry of any kind, especially as poetry of the formal, or Classical kind. Indeed, most operatic lyrics are more prosaic than poetic, despite the music lifting, indeed, transforming the words into something akin to poetry.

The point I wish to raise in this brief essay, is to ask if you can think of a well-known lyric that can stand as a successful formal poem when peeled away from the music with which it is associated. But before you share your suggestions in the comments, I would like to offer an example of my own: A poem I wrote concurrent with the music that, when joined, turned the poem into a lyric.

.

When Evening Falls, I Think of You

__When we were young and filled with life
I asked you for your hand and you became my wife.
__And side by side we faced the sun
And lived our hopes and dreams together joined as one.

__The love we shared helped see us through;
When times were hard I always counted on you.
__And in your eyes I saw my own;
Those years were ours, now those years have flown.

__When evening falls I think of you;
And I remember all the things young lovers do.
__And as I dream I hold your hand,
And whisper words that only you can understand.

__The love we shared will never end.
In life or death you are my lover and friend.
__And in my dreams I see your face,
And hold you close in a warm embrace.

__The years have passed and nights are cold.
I reach out for your hand but there’s no hand to hold.
__In sleep I flee from grief’s alarms,
For in my dreams I hold you ever in my arms.

__And when I wake, though we’re apart,
With tears of memory I hold you in my heart.

.

.

In what way does the music enhance the words? In what way might the music distract from the poem?
The larger question remains, can a lyric also be a poem? And if so, are there any that are good enough to stand alongside the best of contemporary formal poetry? And if so, why are their no examples of lyrics found, for example, in any anthologies of 20th century formal poetry?

As mentioned above, in addition to any comments you might wish to make regarding my own words and music, I invite you to share examples of familiar lyrics you believe can stand alone as formal poetry.

.

.

James A. Tweedie is a retired pastor living in Long Beach, Washington. He has written and published six novels, one collection of short stories, and four collections of poetry including Sidekicks, Mostly Sonnets, and Laughing Matters, all with Dunecrest Press. His poems have been published nationally and internationally in both print and online media. He was honored with being chosen as the winner of the 2021 SCP International Poetry Competition.

NOTE TO READERS: If you enjoyed this poem or other content, please consider making a donation to the Society of Classical Poets.

The Society of Classical Poets does not endorse any views expressed in individual poems or commentary.


Trending now:

19 Responses

  1. Roy Eugene Peterson

    James, I have written more than 150 songs and most of them make good poetry in my estimation. When I write music, the words and music come to me at the same time. Here is one example:

    MINNESOTA KIND-OF-A-DAY
    By Roy E. Peterson

    It’s a blackberry picking morning;
    It’s a Minnesota kind-of-a-day.
    All the corn is growing and the breeze is blowing;
    Everything is going to be okay.
    All the springtime flowers are blooming.
    All my cares have gone away.
    It’s a blackberry picking morning.
    It’s a Minnesota kind-of-a-day.

    There’s a white frame house ‘neath a band of trees;
    There’s a peacefully flowing stream,
    That I followed away, when I left one day
    To find the American dream.
    There’s a barefoot boy who grew to a man,
    Who is longing to hear someone say,
    “It’s a blackberry picking morning.
    It’s a Minnesota kind-of-a-day.”

    It’s a blackberry picking morning;
    It’s a Minnesota kind-of-a-day.
    All the corn is growing and the breeze is blowing;
    Everything is going to be okay.
    All the springtime flowers are blooming.
    All my cares have gone away.
    It’s a blackberry picking morning.
    It’s a Minnesota kind-of-a-day.
    It’s the Land of Lakes that are calling me
    And the woods I used to roam.
    In the wintertime it’s the logs of pine
    That are burning on my mind.
    There are summer showers and happy hours.
    There is some sweet girl to say,
    “It’s a blackberry picking morning.
    It’s a Minnesota kind-of-a-day.”

    It’s a blackberry picking morning;
    It’s a Minnesota kind-of-a-day.
    All the corn is growing and the breeze is blowing;
    Everything is going to be okay.
    All the springtime flowers are blooming.
    All my cares have gone away.
    It’s a blackberry picking morning.
    It’s a Minnesota kind-of-a-day.

    Reply
    • James A. Tweedie

      Roy, perhaps you might consider submitting some of your words and music for Evan to post, as Jeff and I and others have done?

      Reply
      • Roy Eugene Peterson

        Thank you, James. I am considering more this next year.

    • Cheryl A Corey

      In this example, the phrasing of the first two lines is very catchy, and the refrain is used strongly throughout the poem. Your essay makes me think of earlier great lyricists such as George M. Cohan and Rogers & Hammerstein.

      Reply
      • Roy Eugene Peterson

        Thank you so much, Cheryl! That is a special comparison!

  2. James A. Tweedie

    One important source of musical “lyrics” that I failed to reference is that of sacred music, anthems, and hymns. What a wealth of beloved, familiar (and memorized!) poetic riches can be found therein!

    Reply
    • Roy Eugene Peterson

      You are so right! Here is my song (lyrics) posted on SCP, December 25, 2023:

      Christmas Hallelujah by Roy E. Peterson
      sung to the melody of “Hallelujah” by Leonard Cohen
      Note: You can find the tune online by the title and author, Leonard Cohen.

      When I hear a song of destiny,
      Of peace and love and harmony,
      From deep within I feel an Hallelujah.
      When I can feel a tingling spine,
      A heavenly vision with earth align,
      Then from my soul I’m praying Hallelujah.
      Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah!

      A soaring voice, the instrument,
      The power of the testament,
      Bring moisture to my eyes, Oh, Hallelujah!
      Can mortals join with angel chorus?
      Just think of things, the King did for us.
      I bow my head and thank Him, Hallelujah!
      Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah!

      Let nations rise and nations fall.
      The One who is the God of all
      Sent hope to be among us. Hallelujah!
      The gold, the myrrh, the frankincense
      Mere symbols of his eminence.
      The wise men give him praise, Oh, Hallelujah!
      Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah!

      Reply
  3. Brian A. Yapko

    This is a truly interesting subject, James, well analyzed in your essay. And thank you for sharing the beautiful lyric. I can’t speak as to opera or hymns here, but Broadway is a subject I know well. And the Broadway tradition has, I believe, some interesting points to add to the discussion.

    I happen to be reading a book about Stephen Sondheim’s musicals (“Art Isn’t Easy — The Theater of Stephen Sondeim:) and Sondheim has some interesting insights about the differences between poems and lyrics which I thought I’d mention: “Sondheim believes that there are two basic principles that dictate what a lyric writer and and should do. The first is that lyrics exist in TIME. An audience cannot ask a performer to slow down or repeat, for the music is a relentless engine and keeps the lyrics going. The second is that lyrics go with music, and music is very rich… It’s also abstract and does very strange things to your emotions. So not only do you have that going, but you also have lights, costumes, scenery, characters, performers. There’s a great deal to hear and get. Lyrics therefore have to be underwritten. They have to be very simple in essence. That doesn’t mean you can’t do convoluted lyrics, but essentially the thought is what counts and you have to stretch the thought out enough so that the listener has a fair chance to get it. Many lyrics suffer from being too packed.” He also notes other technicalities to make the lyric “singable.” Like ending a song on an open sound (so it can be sung properly) and choosing consonants with care…” (unlike poetry which exists primary for the eye, lyrics must be intelligible with the ear.)

    One last point Sondheim brings up which is something I take seriously in my dramatic monologues: “rhyme suggests education. The quality of language must match the character, for in many ways a song functions like a soliloquy in which the internal motivations of a character can be conveyed.”

    What I take from this is that poetic devices which we rely on such as alliteration or intense internal rhyme may make a song either more difficult to sing or more difficult to understand. There are reasons why a good poem may not make a good song, and why a lyric divorced from its music may not make a good poem.

    But some poetry can become superlatively beautiful songs. I’m thinking directly of Ariel’s song “Full fathom five…” from in The TempesFull fathom five thy father lies;
    Of his bones are coral made;
    Those are pearls that were his eyes:
    Nothing of him that doth fade,
    But doth suffer a sea-change
    Into something rich and strange.
    Sea-nymphs hourly ring his knell:
    Ding-dong.
    Hark! now I hear them,—ding-dong, bell.

    Or Byron’s “She Walks in Beauty” which has many times been set to music:

    She walks in beauty, like the night
    Of cloudless climes and starry skies;
    And all that’s best of dark and bright
    Meet in her aspect and her eyes;
    Thus mellowed to that tender light
    Which heaven to gaudy day denies.

    One shade the more, one ray the less,
    Had half impaired the nameless grace
    Which waves in every raven tress,
    Or softly lightens o’er her face;
    Where thoughts serenely sweet express,
    How pure, how dear their dwelling-place.

    And on that cheek, and o’er that brow,
    So soft, so calm, yet eloquent,
    The smiles that win, the tints that glow,
    But tell of days in goodness spent,
    A mind at peace with all below,
    A heart whose love is innocent!

    But, conversely, I can also think of many a song lyric that would never work as a poem. For example: “If you’re blue and you don’t know where to go to why don’t you go where fashion sits, Putting on the Ritz.” It’s a fun lyric and fun to sing, but I find Irving Berlin’s syncopation here impossible to scan into a discernable meter.

    But if you want to know my gold standard of combining poetry with music, take virtually everything written by W. S. Gilbert and set to music by Arthur Sullivan. It’s ALL poetry, which is what Gilbert worked at most after quitting his job as a barrister. His lyrics scan perfectly like poetry because that’s what they are. And Sullivan’s music never detracts but enhances the words. I’ll leave with this fun, scannable lyric from Pirates of Penzance:

    With catlike tread upon our prey we steal
    In silence dread our cautious way we feel
    No sound at all, we never speak a word
    A fly’s footfall would be distinctly heard.

    If you’re familiar with the music, you can hear the dramatic way Sullivan broke up the lines so that the poetry of the meter is subsumed by the rollicking music.

    At any rate, I’m now rambling on a subject which I find endlessly fascinating. Thank you for the inspiration!

    Reply
  4. James A. Tweedie

    Excellent Sondheim quote! It all reminds me of the lyricisation of formal poetry to, for example, German lieder, Not lyrics, I would argue, but poetry set to music. Any thoughts?

    Reply
  5. David Paul Behrens

    Here’s a verse from a Hank Williams song which I have always considered pure poetry:

    The silence of a falling star
    lights up a purple sky
    And as I wonder where you are
    I’m so lonesome I could cry

    Reply
    • David Paul Behrens

      Incidentally, earlier this year I collaborated with a musician friend of mine. I gave him eleven poems which I wrote over the years to see if he could use them for song lyrics. So far he has completed four of them and has been performing them in a local club.

      Reply
  6. Paul A. Freeman

    Personally, the lyrics to ‘Yesterday’ always catch me in the throat.

    You may be interested to know there’s a film, with Hugh Grant and Drew Barrymore, no less, called ‘Music and Lyrics’, which examines many of the points you touch on in your essay, though in a Hugh Grant-ish way.

    Thanks for the read.

    Reply
  7. Isabella

    Thanks so much James for putting a spotlight on this, a most interesting subject and I thoroughly enjoyed your poem and music. The phrasing of the words and melody make a wonderfully harmonious union!
    I love to sing folk songs and I feel many of those would make stand alone poems. Indeed there is a whole essay right there; the history of folk music and how many of the songs evolved. Many versions of the same song or set to different melodies etc.
    I also have sung John Dowland songs ” weep you no more sad fountains” is exquisite.

    Of course Shakespeare has been set to music so many times.
    With regard to contemporary poems/music, I think many of Sandy Denny’s songs would stand alone too. She is a British folk singer who had a brief spell singing with Fairport Convention.
    Also ‘The magpie song ” is another song I like to sing . It was written in the 1960s by David Dodds its chorus uses the old nursery counting rhyme:

    The Magpie

    Chorus (after every other verse):
    One for sorrow, two for joy,
    Three for a girl and four for a boy.
    Five for silver, six for gold,
    Seven for a secret never told.
    Devil, devil, I defy thee.
    Devil, devil, I defy thee.
    Devil, devil, I defy thee.

    Oh, the magpie brings us tidings
    Of news both fair and foul;
    She’s more cunning than the raven,
    More wise than any owl.

    For she brings us news of the harvest
    Of the barley, wheat, and corn.
    And she knows when we’ll go to our graves
    And how we shall be born.

    She brings us joy when from the right,
    Grief when from the left.
    Of all the news that’s in the air
    We know to trust her best.

    For she sees us at our labour,
    And she mocks us at our work.
    And she steals the egg from out of the nest,
    And she can mob the hawk.

    The priest, he says we’re wicked
    To worship the devil’s bird.
    Ah, but we respect the old ways
    And we disregard his word.

    For we know they rest uneasy
    As we slumber in the night;
    And we’ll always leave a little bit of meat
    For the bird that’s black and white.

    And of course as you mentioned in a comment there is such a wealth of hymns too!

    Reply
  8. Cynthia Erlandson

    James, thank you for bringing up such a fascinating topic! I think your poem is a good poem by itself, yet lovelier with your beautiful music, which so well accompanies the text, with its moving, melancholy mood.

    You made a comment above regarding hymns. Since you’re a pastor as well as a poet and musician, I’m sure you’re aware that many hymn texts are set to more than one tune, and in my experience I always have a preference for one tune over the other, and I think this has to do with how well the music seems to me to match the text. I have the pleasure of selecting the hymns for our church one Sunday per month, and I’ll give here a couple of examples of texts that I think are beautiful poems in themselves:

    One is an Easter hymn, written by St. John of Damascus, centuries before the tune (“St. Kevin”) was composed by Arthur Seymour Sullivan. Here are just the first two verses:

    “Come, ye faithful, raise the strain of triumphant gladness;
    God hath brought his Israel into joy from sadness,
    Loosed from Pharaoh’s bitter yoke Jacob’s sons and daughters,
    Led them with unmoistened foot through the Red Sea waters.

    “Tis the spring of souls today; Christ hath burst his prison,
    And from three days’ sleep in death as a sun hath risen;
    All the winter of our sins, long and dark, is flying
    From his light to whom we give laud and praise undying.”

    I love the profundity of the text (all four verses), especially as it brings out the connections between God’s ways of working with the Old and New Testament churches. Yet the triumphant tune brings out these profundities even more.

    And here is an Evening Prayer text by John Ellerton, set to a tune by Clement Scholefield:

    “The day thou gavest, Lord, is ended; the darkness falls at thy behest;
    To thee our morning hymns ascended; thy praise shall sanctify our rest.

    “We thank thee that thy Church, unsleeping while earth rolls onward into light,
    Through all the world her watch is keeping, and rests not now by day or night.

    “The sun that bids us rest is waking our brethren ‘neath the western sky,
    And hour by hour fresh lips are making thy wondrous doings heard on high.”

    There are three other marvelous verses, but I just love the imagery the poet has been able to depict. But again, it does sound even more profound with the music, as if they were meant to go together (perhaps they were).

    (Both of the above hymns are quoted from “The Book of Common Praise” hymnal, copyright 2017.)

    Reply
    • James A. Tweedie

      Cynthia,

      Many thanks for sharing these two beautiful hymn texts. The first obviously a translation I have sung many times to St. Kevin. The second, although in hymnals I have used all my life (including old Presbyterian hymnal, The Australian Hymnbook, and the Methodist Hymnal I sang from this morning) I had never sung nor seen nor heard before now! It is, of course, also beautiful both in Tex and in the tune to which it is sung. The poetry of Issac Watts and Samuel Wesley also come to mind as well crafted poetry able to stand on their own merits. Most all of Catherine Winkworth’s translation of German hymn lyrics also stand out as well-crafted efforts. A list of remarkable hymn texts, including the metrical Psalms from Geneva (in French) and Scotland (in English), would be commendable, of course, but also near to endless.

      Reply
  9. fred schueler

    It may well have been my pointing out, to Fay Baird, back around 1990, the poetic character of the lines –
    “In the Norfolk Hotel, over far too much beer,
    The old guys remember when the water ran clear,
    No poisons with names that we can’t understand,
    and no tiny fish for Japan” –
    In Stan Rogers’ song, which led the Short Sisters to cover it – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qJAHam0plRA

    Reply
  10. James A. Tweedie

    Fred, I’ll let others judge whether this qualifies as formal poetry (or not) but I will thank you for sharing something that is a pure, honest, straightforward, simple poke in the eye that both made my day and made me smile out loud!

    Reply
  11. Bob Elkins

    Perhaps consider that all poetry is lyric and just waiting for the right music to be fitted to it? I’ve had that feeling since I heard my high school English Lit teacher read Chaucer in the original – being the fine Irish tenor that he was!

    Reply
  12. Margaret Coats

    James, your overall topic is a fascinating one, and there are many song texts that can stand alone as formal poetry. I own an anthology of songs, comprised only of what you here call “lyrics,” without the music that enriches them. This publication shows that the words are considered valuable in themselves. Probably, they rarely show up in poetry anthologies because there is a prejudice against song lyrics as less serious than other kinds of the very large class of poetry known as “lyric.” Or their usual brevity works against songs; we also do not see many examples of epigram in the anthologies, even though these shorter poems are often profound in thought.

    (1) My first example of song texts that can stand as formal poetry is the songs from Shakespeare’s plays. These are sometimes combined with the sonnets to make a volume of the Bard’s brief poetry. I will say that when Shakespearean songs have music of the highest quality (as in Henry Purcell’s music for “Midsummer Night’s Dream”), the listener may think the songs were practically nothing without the great composer.

    (2) Thomas Campion’s songs set to his own music, and usually published in several volumes with both words and music. “Never Weather Beaten Sail” may be the best known. These are more likely to appear in music history than in literary history, but many of these “lyrics” are good formal poems.

    (3) Joseph Addison’s “The Spacious Firmament on High,” which benefits by melody and harmony from Haydn.

    (4) Paul McCartney’s “Yesterday.” I agree with Paul Freeman on this example of a deeply felt love song with a melody that sets it apart from other works by Lennon and McCartney.

    (5) “Con Te Partiro,” an Italian song made world famous by singer Andrea Bocelli. In this case it is not just the melody or Bocelli’s fine voice, but the grand orchestration of the song, whose words are substantial enough to stand as a literary achievement. Listeners applaud on hearing the first few bars.

    (6) “How Beautiful” by American singer and songwriter Twila Paris. This text is profoundly Christian, but I would say not a hymn. Rather it belongs to the special category of “lauda” or “religious song” that we know first from medieval Italy.

    (7) “The Larger Bowl” by Neil Peart of the Canadian rock group Rush. A “social consciousness” popular song written in the form of a pantoum. In this case, the chosen lyric form does more than the music to enhance its literary value.

    In thinking about the question of “lyrics” that are also poems, we need to consider that there are literary “kinds” or “genres” to which these naturally belong. We only need accept these “kinds” of literature as authentic poetry, and we’re likely to find the full range of greatness and goodness and mediocrity among them as in genres we usually turn to for formal verse.

    Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.