ShmoopTube

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Music as Poetry, a la Shmoop. The next time you're hanging out with your

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friends at a karaoke bar...

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...we recommend you blowing them all away with this little ditty.

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Okay, so maybe music and poetry aren't exactly interchangeable.

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We also can't really picture Maya Angelou rocking out at an open mic night.

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However, the connection between music and poetry is undeniable.

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If given some words on a page, you might often be hard-pressed to say whether you're looking

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at a poem or song lyrics. So why are these two... brothers from the

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same mother? Well, first of all... the resemblance is striking.

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The lines are short, as opposed to lines of prose, or dialogue in a script...

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...in both lyrics and poetry, the "Enter" key gets quite a workout.

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Very often... although not always... there will be a rhyming scheme...

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In fact, poems and song lyrics are about the only two things in the world that rhyme.

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Well... and creative trolls who demand you solve their riddles before allowing you access

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to their bridge.

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Even if you come across a piece that doesn't rhyme...

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...it will at the very least have rhythm.

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It might flow smoothly from one line to the next, it might be made up of short, staccato

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lines...

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...but no matter what, it will feel like there is some kind of beat underneath the words

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you are reading. Or singing.

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You know... something you could dance to. But there's also... and perhaps most importantly...

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the meaning behind the words.

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Poetry and music come at language from a pretty similar angle.

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They look at words as tools that can be used to evoke an emotional response.

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Exactly what kind of emotional response depends on the poem or song...

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...but as long as it is making the reader-slash-listener think or feel something, it has done its job.

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Want a famous example of the interplay between poetry and song?

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Ever hear of the musical Cats?

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It's one of the most popular Broadway musicals of all time...

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...and the songs are all taken directly from poems written by T.S. Eliot.

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Although... he probably never pictured all of the gaudy costumes.

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The next time you're reading a poem, imagine it as a song.

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Likewise, the next time you're listening to a piece of music, think about what effect

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it would have if it were merely words on a page.

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Taylor Swift and Robert Browning have more in common that you may realize.

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They even sported the same hairdo for a while.

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