Poetry: Music Without the Notes

Hello all, 

As you guys may know, I really love music. 

Like really love.

In fact, I love it so much that I planned on teaching myself how to compose and somehow ended up wasting 7 months, waiting for Godot.

Anyways now (putting aside my laziness), let's move onward

After recently finishing the poetry unit in Ms. Knudson's class, I feel like I really miss poetry 

(Absolutely not the essays we had to write on them though, screw those).

The reason being that poetry, in a way, is closer to music than anything else really is. The words and the phrases are reminscent of lyric bars in a song, except without any musical notes. 

In fact, when you hear the word "ballad," what two things does it pertain to?  

Music and Poetry

This is because ballad poems are extremely lyrical and very song-like, hence why it is called a ballad, like the music type (which is the type I'm concerningly obssesed over). When you read a ballad poem, you would read it as if it were singing a song, just without any notes.

While ballads might be the closest to music that there is in poetry, practically any piece of poetry can be turned into a song. 

For example, my gracious self has written a short, simple poem (which may or may not sound sort of hackneyed)

Poetry, 

like song, 

leaps— 

a frog in rain. 

Words pluck 

heartstrings, 

each syllable 

a note— 

flying. 

Verses hum, 

stitches in time's 

material—

 a melody worn. 

Ink dances, 

silent songs— 

we listen, laughing.

This poem is obviously not a ballad as per it doesn't follow the structure of one at all. It doesn't have four-line stanzas nor does it have a dedicated ABCB rhyme scheme either. 

However, this doesn't mean it cannot be sung. 

Every poem has some sort of rhythm whether it will be formulaic or completely an erratic mess that cannot be cleaned up, which will serve as the rhythm for the song. We can then compose our own melody that we see will fit with the "lyrics" of the song and arrange it syllable-by-syllable onto the musical notes. While of course, not every song genre, melody, or even structure will be aligned the best with the poem itself, but that does not matter as the final result is still a song.

Not necessarily the best one you've heard, no.

But it's still a song, and that's what makes it all the worthwhile. 

(If you try turning "my" poem into a song, I am not responsible for any headaches due to producing an unmemorable result)

So what exactly did we learn today?

Not much actually.

Just the fact that poetry is so similar, maybe almost the same as music.

Just only without the notes.