Lyrics & Poems

**#*بلسم جروح*#** · 25-06-2006, 08:09 AM

Song Lyrics v. Poems.
The Similarities
To understand the differences between a poem and a well-crafted song lyric, it’s helpful to first understand the similarities.
In general, the same virtues that make a good poem—effective imagery, compelling themes, emotional evocativeness and originality—also make a good song lyric.
* Both poems and song lyrics rely on the potent use of language.
* Both engage their readers and listeners on an emotional level.
* Both require a skilled use of word sounds and rhyming.
Poetry and song lyrics both benefit from well-applied poetic devises, such as metaphor, simile, alliteration, hyperbole, personification, onomatopoeia. And both rely on the effective use of descriptive imagery.
Despite the many similarities, poetry and lyrics are not the same thing.
Here are some important differences between a poem and a song lyric:
A poem is designed to be read on the page—a lyric is designed to be sung by the human voice and heard with music
Just think about it for a moment. When you’re listening to a song, you don’t have the luxury of going back and re-reading. You can’t stop to dwell on every line.
A poem can be dense in ideas and structurally complex. It is designed to connect with a reader.
A successful lyric needs connect with a listener. Since music moves the lyric quickly past the listener’s consciousness, the lyric needs to communicate with immediacy, clarity and focused impact.
A poem stands alone— without music. A lyric must work well with the rhythm and structure of music
A poem can be read silently. A lyric must be sung.
A lyric writer needs to also consider the singers who will perform his work. Certain words and phrases are smooth to sing. Others can be difficult or awkward
Poetry can be of almost any length. Lyrics must be concise.
A poem can go on for pages, using concealed images that reveal themselves only after careful re-reading.
In a song lyric, the music moves quickly and every word counts. The best lyric writers use as few words as possible to set a scene and evoke a feeling. Few songs that gain radio play these days are longer than three or four minutes