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Poem v. song : Leonard Cohen. — alina Ştefănescu

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It was lovely to hear Stephanie Burt and Kamran Javadizadeh discuss the relationship between popular music and poetry on Close Reading podcast this morning. Although this (blurry) distinction — and history— comes up in the poetry and music workshop I’m teaching, I’m not sure hard lines can be drawn between the song lyric and the poem. That said, thinking about the text as a medium, considering (and taking seriously) the visual component of the page, leads me to Leonard Cohen. The layout of the song lyric tends to be vertical, drawing the eye directly down the page as opposed to moving across it. Another way to say this is that the song lyric, as distinguished from the poem, lacks a horizon; it doesn’t reach towards the edge; it is predictable in its motion downwards. As a result, song lyrics provide opportunities to study lineation and line breaks. Notice the distinction between how Leonard Cohen presents the song lyrics for “Who By Fire” in the album, New Skin for the Old Ceremony v.

It was lovely to hear Stephanie Burt and Kamran Javadizadeh discuss the relationship between popular music and poetry on Close Reading podcast this morning. Although this (blurry) distinction — and history— comes up in the poetry and music workshop I’m teaching, I’m not sure hard lines can be drawn between the song lyric and the poem. That said, thinking about the text as a medium, considering (and taking seriously) the visual component of the page, leads me to Leonard Cohen. The layout of the song lyric tends to be vertical, drawing the eye directly down the page as opposed to moving across i

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