The Rivalry & Reciprocity Between POETRY & SONGWRITING

1. Growing up I was not allowed to listen to “secular” music except for James Taylor, Don Mclean, and Cat Stevens (that one is a bit ironic)… but I WAS allowed to read almost any book that I wanted to read. In fact, every single night before bed my dad read novels, biographies, and poetry to myself and my 3-6 siblings (depending on how many foster kids we had at the time)... 2. I started writing poetry as a young child 3. Meanwhile I also started composing songs on the piano… but I didn’t put the 2 together until much later 4. 8th grade I started sneaking music (Smashing Pumpkins, Green Day, Blink 182, Nirvana, Dave Matthews Band) 5. I would secretly record the radio with my tape recorder and snuck out to punk shows and of course, The Smashing Pumpkins 6. Buy hundreds of CDs at Rockit Records dirt cheap 7. 10th grade english teach 1st assignment - ID all poetic devices in a song 1. RIVALRY (Keep your hands off our Nobel Prize!)

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1. Relationship between poetry, songwriting, and storytelling has always seemed natural to me 2. BUT my eyes were opened to the rivalry between the 2 when…. 2016 Nobel Prize - Literature

BOB DYLAN 6

“It’s so surprising it barely feels like a surprise. No one predicted Dylan’s victory. And yet, in retrospect, it is oddly, dully, predictable. Of course, if the Nobel committee wanted to show it was hip, it would pick Dylan. Of course if it wanted to show that popular music could be literature, it would pick Dylan. Of course, if it decided to be different and exciting, it would pick Dylan. Dylan’s brand is “different and exciting”. It has been for going on half a century.” - Noah Berlatsky, Literary Hub

“After this morning’s announcement, an interviewer put to the Nobel Permanent Secretary Sara Danius the notion that because Dylan isn’t known for novels or traditional poetry, the committee has “widened the horizon” of the literature prize. Darius pushed back: Well, it may look that way. But really, we haven’t, in a way. If you look back, far back, 2,500 years or so ago, you discover Homer and Sappho. And they wrote poetic texts that were meant to be listened to, they were meant to be performed, often together with instruments. It’s the same way with Bob Dylan. But we still read Homer and Sappho and we enjoy it. And same thing with Bob Dylan. He can be read and should be read, and is a great poet in the grand English poetic tradition.” - Spencer Kornhaber, The Atlantic

“Various Dylan fans continue to be pleased, various English-language novelists continue to be annoyed, and various American poets continue to say something or other that no one is paying much attention to. Beneath the surface of this amusing situation, however, is an intriguing tangle of questions about high and low culture, the nature of poetry, the nature of songwriting, the power of celebrity and the relative authority of different art forms. These questions all largely turn on the notion that Bob Dylan is, if not a poet, at least poet-ish to some notable degree.” - David Orr, New York Times

DISCUSSION ● “If you're a songwriter and someone refers to your lyrics as "poetry," do you take that as a compliment, as if somehow you've lyrically ''transcended”? Or would you prefer that your songs be heard (or lyrics read) on their own terms—apart from traditional poetry as a basis for comparison?” ● “If you're a poet: Is there a difference in intellectual seriousness between song lyrics and what the literary world would regard as "poetry," or is this just popular perception, a matter of semantics?” ○ Hannah Lee Jones, Primal School 6

“Some spoken word is astonishing. Some “page” poetry is astonishing. Some bathroom graffiti is astonishing. Mediocre work exists in every form.” - Chen Chen THE ARGUMENTS

Songwriting as Poetry OR Songwriting vs Poetry

● Lyrics don’t hold up on paper ● Lyrics are the original poetry (oral/aural tradition) ● Memorability (“isn’t that cheating?”) ● Elitism ● Musicality ● Genre (Poetry ≠ songs; screenplays ≠ theater) ● The scope of poetry ● Typical poet = very similar to typical songwriter ● Grammys ≠ poetry

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LYRICS DON’T HOLD UP ON PAPER - [Lyrics are] very rarely printed on a page, at least for the purpose of being read as poems. Mostly they’re printed so that people can figure out what Eddie Vedder is saying in “Yellow Ledbetter.” - David Orr, New York Times

ORAL TRADITION - the ancient Greeks didn’t distinguish between poetry and song”...BUT “the fact that a group of people thought about something a certain way nearly three millenniums ago doesn’t seem like a compelling argument for thinking the same way today. (The ancient Greeks also sacrificed animals to their gods)” - David Orr, New York Times” - David Orr, New York Times

ELITISM & MUSICALITY: - “The benefit of music and melody means we don’t forget lyrics easily—so isn’t that cheating? Here we poets are, grinding away at the blank page every day and hoping one person will ever read this stuff. But lyrics get that musical spoonful of sugar, and boom, they’re in the brain forever. (Can you imagine how ubiquitous poetry would be if everyone could remember it as well as song lyrics?). - And even that assessment softens what might really be at the heart of the dismissal of song lyrics as poetry: elitism. Institutional and otherwise. It seems that the more accessible something is, the more likely it is to be derided as “not art,” or in this case, “not poetry.”” - Ruth Awad

MUSICALITY - I think, also, that music can get away with a lot of cliché and still be considered great, can still win awards and top charts (bad poetry, I assure you, gets no attention from the literary world—even good poetry stays unseen for a while, or forever, often due to racism, sexism, and other isms). Lots of pop music, for example, is centered around love, heartbreak, etc., and it may be because that's what the audience wants; maybe we all find that compelling to some degree, but I think musical accompaniment helps—it adds something to words that may not necessarily be interesting. I’ll also say that I love pop music.” - Lisa Summe - “A well-written song isn’t just a poem with a bunch of notes attached; it’s a unity of verbal and musical elements.” (Prosody!!!) - David Orr, New York Times - “In some ways, this makes a lyricist’s job potentially easier than a poet’s, because an attractive tune can rescue even the laziest phrasing.” - David Orr, NYT - BUT “the presence of music makes songwriting harder, because the writer must contend with timbre, rhythm, melody and so forth, each of which presents different constraints on word selection and placement.” - David Orr, New York Times - “Here’s Michiko Kakutani 31 years ago in a generally positive New York Times review of Dylan’s Lyrics 1962-1985: Simply reading a song, we miss the ways in which the words interact with the music—how, say, the sardonic lyrics to many of the songs on ''Highway 61 Revisited'' counterpoint the upbeat, even exuberant tracks - and we are deprived, as well, of the point of view supplied by Mr. Dylan's raw, insistent inflections and distinctive phrasings. Numbers like ''Lay, Lady, Lay,'' ''Blowin' in the Wind'' and even ''Like a Rolling Stone'' feel considerably more trite as prose poems than as songs, and many of Mr. Dylan's weaker efforts —''New Pony,'' say, or ''Emotionally Yours''—simply collapse into pretentious posturing when separated from their propulsive tracks, which at least helped to endow them with a modicum of conviction on the records. - - Spencer Kornhaber, The Atlantic

GENRE - “screenplays and theatrical plays resemble each other more closely than do songs and poems, but that has yet to result in Quentin Tarantino winning the Pulitzer in drama.” - David Orr, New York Times

SCOPE OF POETRY - “Beyond the many technical differences, though, there is the simple fact that people don’t really think of songs as being poems, or of songwriters as being poets. No one plays an album by Chris Stapleton, or downloads the cast recording of “Hamilton,” or stands in line for a Taylor Swift concert, and says something like, “I can’t wait to listen to these poems!” - David Orr, New York Times - “Yet while people routinely describe both Dylan and Kid Rock as “songwriters” and “musicians,” there are very, very few people who refer to Kid Rock as a poet.” - David Orr, New York Times - This may seem odd, because we don’t typically recognize excellence at one endeavor by labeling it as another, different venture. But poetry has an unusually large and ungrounded metaphoric scope.” - David Orr, New York Times - “poets have often benefited from the blurred edge of their discipline. Poetry has one primary asset: It’s the only genre automatically considered literary regardless of its quality.” - David Orr, New York Times

TYPICAL POET - Moreover, while most people have limited experience with poems, they do generally have ideas about what a poet should be like. Typically, this involves a figure who resembles — well, Bob Dylan: a countercultural, bookish wanderer who does something involving words, and who is eloquent yet mysterious, wise yet innocent, charismatic yet elusive (and also, perhaps not coincidentally, a white dude).” - David Orr, New York Times

GRAMMYS - Not given to poets (Except for Spoken Word albums BUT that’s still audio) SUMMARY “When you join all of these factors — the wide metaphoric scope of “poetry,” the lack of familiarity with actual poetry or poets, the role-playing involved in the popular conception of the poet — it’s not hard to see how you might get a Nobel laureate in literature who doesn’t actually write poems.” - David Orr, New York Times Poetry Songwriting ● Long and short lines irregularly ● Short lines of regular length mixed ● Short words, often of one syllable ● Long as well as short words ● Short sentences and phrases, which ● Sometimes very long sentences and usually correspond with the line phrases (even extending the entire ● A regular rhythm in the line, length of the poem) often not sometimes extending over the entire corresponding with the lines at all lyric ● Irregular rhythm ● Simple, concise thought ● Abstract thoughts, sometimes ● Frequent repetition of words and expressed at great length phrases meant to be heard ● Infrequent repetition of words and ● Words and groups of words that are phrases often read silently easily spoken ● Words and groups of words that are sometimes spoken with difficulty 9

Sheila Davis 2. RECIPROCITY (We Can Work It Out)

10 LOOK AT SONG LYRICS LIKE A POET

◈ You can have good poetry without music… but you can’t have good lyrics without poetry ◈ Language/poetic devices ◈ Rhyme scheme ◈ Generally, songwriters start out as poets

11 ANAPHORA ◈ “Hey There Delilah” - The Plain White Ts ◈ “I Envy the Wind” - Lucinda Williams ◈ “If I Had” - Eminem

ALLITERATION ◈ “What’s wrong with the world mama” - Black Eyed Peas ◈ “Whisper words of wisdom, let it be” - Let it Be - The Beatles ◈ “Sweet seducing sighs” - Human Nature - Michael Jackson ◈ “They paved paradise and put up a parking lot” Big Yellow Taxi - Joni Mitchell ◈ “This time, this place, misused, mistakes, too long, too late” Far Away - Nickelback ◈ “Can you imagine no first dance, freeze dried romance, five-hour phone conversation?” Drops of Jupiter -Train 12

● The use of a word referring to or replacing a word used earlier in a sentence, to avoid repetition, such as do in I like it and so do they. ● The repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of successive clauses. ● Possibly the oldest literary device, has its roots in Biblical Psalms used to emphasize certain words or phrases. Gradually, Elizabethan and Romantic writers brought this device into practice. ○ Apart from the function of giving prominence to certain ideas, the use of anaphora in literature adds rhythm, thus making it more pleasurable to read, and easier to remember. As a literary device, anaphora serves the purpose of giving artistic effect to passages of prose and poetry. As a rhetorical device, anaphora is used to appeal to the emotions of the audience, in order to persuade, inspire, motivate, and encourage them. ALLUSION ◈ “Love Story” - Taylor Swift - Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet ◈ “One thing” - One Direction - Superman ◈ “Gangsta’ Paradise” - Coolio - Psalm 23 ◈ “Shadrach” - Beastie Boys - Daniel 3, OT ASSONANCE ◈ Eminem featured in “Loud Noises” by Bad Meets Evil ft Slaughterhouse “I electrify—Get electrocuted, executed by an executioner of my flow. Too quick for the human eye to detect zooming by guess who, what's happening guys?” ◈ Bob Dylan “All I Really Want to Do” - “I ain’t lookin’ to block you up, shock or knock or lock you up, analyze you, categorize you, finalize you or advertise you. All I really want to do is, baby, be friends with you”

13 HYPERBOLE ◈ “I’m Gonna Be” - The Proclaimers (“I would walk 500 miles) ◈ “All My Friends are Funeral Singers” - Califone

OXYMORON ◈ “The Sound of Silence” - Simon and Garfunkel ◈ “Cold Fire” - Rush ◈ “HelloGoodbye” - the Beatles ◈ “Hurts So Good” - John Mellencamp ◈ “Living Dead Girl” - Rob Zombie ◈ “Hot n Cold” - Katy Perry ◈ “Breakup to Makeup” - The Stylistics

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● I’m Gonna Be by The Proclaimers “But I would walk 500 miles And I would walk 500 more Just to be the man who walks a thousand miles To fall down at your door” ● “All my friends are funeral singers” - Califone PERSONIFICATION ◈ “Hummingbird Heartbeat” - Katy Perry ◈ “Thriller” - Michael Jackson ◈ “New York” - Frank Sinatra

SIMILE ◈ “Like A Rolling Stone” - Bob Dylan ◈ “Man, I Feel Like A Woman” - Shania Twain ◈ “Red” - Taylor Swift

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Personification - give human qualities to non-human things ● “Hummingbird Heartbeat” - Katy Perry When you give me the hummingbird heartbeat Hummingbird heartbeat You give me the hummingbird heartbeat Spread my wings and make me fly ● “Thriller” by Michael Jackson You try to scream but terror takes the sound before you make it You start to freeze as horror looks you right between the eyes You’re paralyzed ‘Cause this is thriller, thriller night And no one’s gonna save you from the beast about to strike. (horror is personified) ● “New York” - Frank Sinatra These vagabond shoes Are longing to stray Right through the very heart of it New York, New York I want to wake up in a city That doesn’t sleep Simile - a comparison of 2 unlike things using “like” or “as” ‘ex. “my brothers are as loud as cymbals clanging” ● “Like a Rollingstone” - Bob Dylan "How does it feel to be without a home Like a complete unknown, Like a rolling stone?" ● “Red” by Taylor Swift - "Loving him is like driving a new Maserati down a dead-end street Faster than the wind, passionate as sin, ended so suddenly." 3. PROSODY (Better than merely coexisting)

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● In the Greek means “towards song” → later meant “the tone of a syllable” ● “Few of us first encounter song lyrics on the page as poetry or as sheet music. Instead, we experience lyrics as sound, usually recorded and sometimes live. Page-born poems and song lyrics are not the same things, but they are drawn together by affinities of sound and silence, patterns of language, and shared games with words… So read pop songs like poems. Sing poems like pop songs. Both acts may seem unnatural, perhaps even perverse at first. Some parts won’t fit. Some sounds will clash. But the practice brings new clarity and insight. Poetic tools of sound, meaning, and feeling are at work in even the most banal pop song, just as they are at work in even the most trite ode or sonnet. The dance of word and music makes songs act on our imagination and emotions just as the best poems do.” - Adam Bradley, The Paris Review (https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2017/03/30/the-poetry-of-pop/) TITLE + FORM

Writing prompt!

17 METAPHORS

● Expressed identity ○ Asserts identity between 2 nouns (Fear is a shadow, cloud is a sailing ship) (wind = yelping dog, river, highway) ■ X = Y “fear is a shadow” ■ Y of X “the shadow of fear” ■ X’s Y “fear’s shadow”

● Qualifying ○ Adjectives qualify nouns or adverbs qualify verbs (hasty clouds, sing blindly)

● Verbal ○ Formed by conflict between the verb and its subject (clouds sail, he tortured his clutch, frost gobbles summer down)

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Making metaphors ● Hard to find, hard to use well ● A collision between ideas that don't belong together. It jams them together and leaves us to struggle with the consequences: for example, an army is a rabid wolf. ● All metaphors must be literally false ○ If the things we identify are the same (ex. A house is a dwelling place) there is no metaphor, only definition. ● Conflict is essential ○ Put things that don't belong together in the same room and watch the friction ● Metaphors WORK by revealing a 3rd thing that 2 ideas share in common. (Army is a rabid wolf) ● Metaphors support lyrics like bone (simile ;) ) “[Cliche] does say something, just nothing “startling. It doesn’t yank you by the hair into her room. No hummingbird fluorescent lights. No faded lace curtains. You get to nap securely at a distance, untouched, uninvolved. Getting the good stuff is harder work.” - Pat Pattison

20 METAPHOR

Writing prompt!

21 OBJECT WRITING GOAL: IMMEDIATE ACCESS TO SPEED AND DEPTH

◈ As an exercise: guarantee yourself only the allotted time (use a timer) ◈ There is no reason to stay loyal to the given subject ◈ You don’t need any rhyme, rhythm, or even full sentences

◈ You can hone, perfect, expound later

OBJECT WRITING GOAL: IMMEDIATE ACCESS TO SPEED AND DEPTH

◈ Sight ◈ Motion (elevator, ◈ Sound moving train, tilt-a-whirl) ◈ Taste ◈ Body (heart pounding, ◈ Touch leg cramp, headache) ◈ Smell

Take 5 min to do a sense bound writing activity using titles from worksheet ““Crap is the best fertilizer” - Pat Pattison

24 THANKS!

Any questions? You can find me at @amaryahlabeff & [email protected]

26 Sources ◈ https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/24/books/review/after-dylans-nobel-what-make s-a-poet-a-poet.html ◈ https://lithub.com/bob-dylan-isnt-even-americas-greatest-literary-songwriter/ ◈ http://www.howlarium.com/songwriting-poetry ◈ https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2016/10/bob-dylan-nobel-prize -lyrics-literature-winner/503972/ ◈ https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2017/03/30/the-poetry-of-pop/

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