Most of us are unaware of the amount of poetry that surrounds us everywhere, every day. In fact, some of us even listen to poetry for hours, on purpose. Sometimes we even pay for it! Yes, this even includes those who claim to have no idea about poetry, or to have no interest in it whatsoever. Guess where you’re receiving your hidden poetry from?
That’s right! It comes from the lyrics of your favorite songs. True, some mainstream songs can’t really be considered poetry—at least not good poetry—but a great song needs good lyrics. I mean, the music can be just as important, but if the lyrics are bad, then we only have half of what makes a good song. Sometimes, these songs would have been better without any lyrics at all. You can even make a song sound amazing with made-up lyrics that don’t really mean anything or belong to a real language, such as artists like Enya, Sigur Ros, or Gladiator with their song “Now We Are Free”. Although, technically, some of these songs might not count as poetry either.
However, most of us are used to listening to songs with real lyrics that we can identify and those are literature. We memorise them, sing along to them, or sing them to ourselves, either out loud or within our minds. Those poems—we all know dozens, even hundreds of them— are engraved deeply inside of us. We remember them. They even have a life of their own, playing inside our heads unexpectedly. We live among poetry. It’s just that most people don’t realise this.
To discover a good and interesting sample of poetry in songs, it’s always good to take a nice trip back in time, to the 60’s and 70’s, and listen to some songs by Donovan, Simon&Garfunkel, Bob Dylan, and many others. For good and ingenious rhymes, however, you might travel back a bit further and explore the musicals of the 30’s, Fred Astaire’s films in particular. They used to weave their words in a funny and entertaining way back then.
But as we said in the first article of this series, poetry is the expression of things—any kind of things—in a beautiful way but it doesn’t necessarily mean it’s always about “beautiful topics”. Here’s an example about this, by Simon&Garfunkel. It’s the story of two people who got so lost into the intellectual/philosophical side of their relationship—a trend back then and in their circles—that they have become strangers to each other and have lost the connection between their hearts. Without poetry, this song would sound quite harsh, painful and probably not pretty, but as you will see, that is not the case at all. So once again, poetry makes miracles, by transforming the coldest scenes into beauty.
The Dangling Conversation by Simon&Garfunkel
It’s a still life watercolor
Of a now-late afternoon
As the sun shines through the curtained lace
And shadows wash the room
And we sit and drink our coffee
Couched in our indifference, like shells upon the shore
You can hear the ocean roar
In the dangling conversation
And the superficial sighs
The borders of our lives
And you read your Emily Dickinson
And I my Robert Frost
And we note our place with book markers
That measure what we’ve lost
Like a poem poorly written
We are verses out of rhythm
Couplets out of rhyme
In syncopated time
And the dangled conversation
And the superficial sighs
Are the borders of our lives
Yes, we speak of things that matter
With words that must be said
“Can analysis be worthwhile?”
“Is the theater really dead?”
And how the room is softly faded
And I only kiss your shadow, I cannot feel your hand
You’re a stranger now unto me
Lost in the dangling conversation
And the superficial sighs
In the borders of our lives…