Whoever said that advertising is the new poetry forgot that song lyrics can also function as poetry, especially to the young (or the relatively young) listeners of these songs. In fact, poems were songs initially even before they came to be known as actual poems. In many cultures around the world, the first form of poetry were sang and not written. This way, people for prehistoric times remember the ?lyrics? even the need to record them (since there weren't any avail means anyway). Today, songs and poetry are no longer interchangeable, but some song lyrics can still be heard or read as poem due to a number of undeniably poetic characteristics.



The youth of today sometimes consider song lyrics as some form of poetry. Provided, the reasons why they think lyrics are poems stem from a lack of understanding in the technical mechanisms of a poem. Add this to the fact that kids today hardly read poetry; hence the tendency to label anything that resembles a poem (such as song lyrics) as a poem. Nonetheless, a number of songs do have lyrics that do read like poetry. After all, the characteristics of good literature are universal, and a number of techniques and elements in a poem can also work in song lyrics.

Take the lyrics of The Beatles song ?Eleanor Rigby,? for example. The lyrics of ?Eleanor Rigby? are often discussed in Literature classes in high school and college to demonstrate how the elements of poetry (the use of symbolism, metaphors, and objective correlative) can work in song lyrics as well. One of the first lines of the song goes, ?Eleanor Rigby picks up the rice in the church where a wedding has been/ Lives in a dream.? The lyrics use a very distinct imagery that not many songs use. Picking up rice could mean many things; while it works in the literal sense (the person pertained to by the song lyrics is indeed picking up rice), it also works in a figurative sense (picking up rice alludes to the practice in weddings where people throw rice at the bride and the groom).

This line in the lyrics already connotes the lonely of Eleanor Rigby which directly saying that she is lonely (not least not in these lines). The principle of showing and not telling in the lyrics is a general rule in writing (not just poems) and it certainly applied in the song.

Other song lyrics used other poetic devices such as the use of alliteration and wordplay to add to the musicality of the lyrics. And musicality is another important feature of a poem. Note Flo Rida's ?In The Ayer.? ?Ayer? in the song means ?air,? but making it ?ayer? in the lyrics makes it more musical and contemporary. Some songs also use metaphors to prefer to something without directly mentioning it. For instance, Vanessa Carlton talks about a very sensitive issue (the first time a girl had sex) in ?White Houses.? In the lyrics ?We were all in love and we all got hurt / I sneak into his car's black leather seat / The smell of gasoline in the summer heat / Boy, we're going way too fast / It's all too sweet to last,? note how the topic was never directly mentioned. But it's there, lingering in the corners of the song.

No wonder the kids of today consider song lyrics as poetry. To be sure, they do not always function as poems. But at its best, these song lyrics can work as well as any printed poems.