ShmoopTube
Where Monty Python meets your 10th grade teacher.
Search Thousands of Shmoop Videos
Literary Forms Videos 43 videos
We may all be fools when it comes to love, but thankfully none of us will accidentally switch places with our twin brother and fall in love with ou...
They say that honesty is the best policy, but Jack lies about his identity and still gets the girl. Does that mean we should all lie to get what we...
Books are meant to be enjoyed. Sure, authors have different motives for their works—some may want to start a revolution while others hope to deli...
Music as Poetry 1452 Views
Share It!
Description:
We'd like to read heavy metal poetry.
Transcript
- 00:07
Music as Poetry, a la Shmoop. The next time you're hanging out with your
- 00:12
friends at a karaoke bar...
- 00:13
...we recommend you blowing them all away with this little ditty.
- 00:19
Okay, so maybe music and poetry aren't exactly interchangeable.
- 00:25
We also can't really picture Maya Angelou rocking out at an open mic night.
Full Transcript
- 00:29
However, the connection between music and poetry is undeniable.
- 00:34
If given some words on a page, you might often be hard-pressed to say whether you're looking
- 00:38
at a poem or song lyrics. So why are these two... brothers from the
- 00:42
same mother? Well, first of all... the resemblance is striking.
- 00:46
The lines are short, as opposed to lines of prose, or dialogue in a script...
- 00:51
...in both lyrics and poetry, the "Enter" key gets quite a workout.
- 00:56
Very often... although not always... there will be a rhyming scheme...
- 01:00
In fact, poems and song lyrics are about the only two things in the world that rhyme.
- 01:09
Well... and creative trolls who demand you solve their riddles before allowing you access
- 01:13
to their bridge.
- 01:21
Even if you come across a piece that doesn't rhyme...
- 01:24
...it will at the very least have rhythm.
- 01:27
It might flow smoothly from one line to the next, it might be made up of short, staccato
- 01:32
lines...
- 01:33
...but no matter what, it will feel like there is some kind of beat underneath the words
- 01:38
you are reading. Or singing.
- 01:38
You know... something you could dance to. But there's also... and perhaps most importantly...
- 01:42
the meaning behind the words.
- 01:46
Poetry and music come at language from a pretty similar angle.
- 01:49
They look at words as tools that can be used to evoke an emotional response.
- 01:55
Exactly what kind of emotional response depends on the poem or song...
- 01:59
...but as long as it is making the reader-slash-listener think or feel something, it has done its job.
- 02:08
Want a famous example of the interplay between poetry and song?
- 02:12
Ever hear of the musical Cats?
- 02:17
It's one of the most popular Broadway musicals of all time...
- 02:18
...and the songs are all taken directly from poems written by T.S. Eliot.
- 02:23
Although... he probably never pictured all of the gaudy costumes.
- 02:28
The next time you're reading a poem, imagine it as a song.
- 02:31
Likewise, the next time you're listening to a piece of music, think about what effect
- 02:35
it would have if it were merely words on a page.
- 02:38
Taylor Swift and Robert Browning have more in common that you may realize.
- 02:44
They even sported the same hairdo for a while.
Related Videos
Books are meant to be enjoyed. Sure, authors have different motives for their works—some may want to start a revolution while others hope to deli...
Have you ever read a sestina in a cantina or a villanelle in your holding cell? The great thing is that... not every type of poetry needs to rhyme....
This video defines sonnets, a favorite of William Shakespeare. What are the different types of sonnet? How do you identify different kinds of sonne...