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Literary Topics Videos 221 videos
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Music as Poetry 1452 Views
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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.
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