The Right Column
Big Sur

Keep 
Right on
Learning
hard to know this:
Differnce between
Songs and Poems
   What is the difference between a song
and a poem? 
The Song:
In a song you most likely have
a chorus that repeats over and over. 
Plus a song has a tune. And a song can be
set to music. There are many different
ways to write songs. You can sit down and
try to write one. You can just start 
singing whatever comes out of your head.
You can sing along with music. You can
write the song first and then write music
to it. For any song like this there are 
an infinity of ways to create music to
go along with it. Ditto that if you have 
music, there are an infinity of songs
that could be written to go along. 
Complex 'pieces' can take music and then have
different parts for songs. These 
are not just songs anymore but what are
often called 'show tunes' or even 'opera'. 
Music is very varied. Music comes to us in
different contexts. 

The Poem:
The poem does not need music.  It doesn't
have to have a tune.  It needs a cadance,
of course.  It has to use human language
for it to have more concrete meaning.  But
meaning . . . is not necessary . . . the kind
of meaning that lawyers and folks who
look for 'ultimate meanings' and think
all words are formal contracts . . .
that is a juvenille way to look at words.
Some people never get past it.  The hold
their nose above it and scoff at it.  
It's just not  . . . good.  Not good, so
they scoff.  They don't even understand.

Neither the Poem nor the Song needs
to have any meaning at all.  The poem
or the song could be just sylables 
that sound interesting.

I think it is clear that all songs 
can also be interpreted as poems.  But
all poems are not songs.  They might
be able to be made into songs.  But
they are not all songs.  So . . . songs
are also (but not just) poems.  And poems
are not necessarily songs but we
can make them into them if we would like.

July 6, 2010