Are poems and song lyrics the same?
Philip Maffetone
The poetry of lyrics, like lyrical poems, can be interchangeable.
Obviously, lyrics are connected to music and poems are not, many say. But the notion that poems are more serious discounts the many great lyricists like Bob Dylan, who won a Nobel Prize in Literature for creating 'new poetic expressions,' Joni Mitchell, Paul McCartney, and many others including centuries of folk songs—we all present our song lyrics as poetry and read poems rhythmically with melodic tonal sounds versus monotonal.
Both lyrics and poems are unique human creative expressions that are much more similar than not, and best read, sung, and heard with the same respect they deserve.
Humans had music from the beginning in the form of songs. It included body language leading to dance but excluded verbal language, which would not be developed for tens of thousands of generations. Yet, this early music was poetic through tonal and melodic vocalizations not unlike the songs of most animals today.
As verbal language developed, it was also tonal, musical in nature (think Mandarin or Navajo, two of the few tonal languages remaining in use today). Language also led to poetry, which was tonal and often combined with music.
Today, some song lyrics may not function well read as a poem, and poetic lines may not easily be used in music, in great part because they were created differently. But the words are the same language, one is just called lyrics, and the other poems. Both usually make generous use of poetic license. Each has varying tonal qualities and musicality to varying degrees. Most importantly, both can be powerful creative artistic expressions uniquely personalized by each human brain, broadcasting social issues, love, and other realities of life. Does it really matter what name we assign them?
Below is one of my social poems recently read to a group of poets. Following it is a link to the song uses the same lyrics. There is also a music video. So, each sensory component—reading, hearing, seeing—increasingly lights up the brain to expand the mind.
Go directly to the music video.
Lyrics below:
John and Joe
John was a drinker, Joe an old smoker
They headed down the highway, from New York to LA
They talked about the war, neither one was sore
Medication killed the pain till they remembered all the names
John the survivor, that Lincoln he would drive her
Too fast on the white line, making up for lost time
Joe was a toker, just drove too slow
Played the music too loud, staring at the clouds
But John kept on drinkin’, he sure wasn’t thinkin’
Sometimes in the night he forgot the headlights
They said Joe’s mind was broken, he’d laugh and be joking
With John fast asleep, passed out in the back seat
John would be weary and Joe started sinkin’
The sun was arisin’, they both closed their eyes
When John began dreamin’, he rolled that old Lincoln
Deep into an oak tree, it was too much to see
Before Joe was awoken, his body blood soaked
Thrown out of the car, no one knew just how far
John was a drinker, Joe the old smoker
That’s all the newspaper said about the life that they led
That’s all the newspaper said about the life that they led
**