Song lyrics... or poetry?

Karmagrl

Musically I'm going through a sort of 60's phase right now, so I've been listening to a lot of Bob Dylan and Lou Reed. What I realised was that listening to this music has the same effect on me as reading certain types of poetry.

It's been bugging me, so I have to ask - what do you think distinguishes song lyrics from poetry? Is there any difference?

Also, how far would you go? I think Bob Dylan is widely accepted as a poet, but what about Pete Doherty? Or Morrissey? Or Scissor Sisters? Or the Spice Girls?

Malakaiii

One of the major differences is the repetition that you'll see in songs doesn't usually occur in poetry.

But there are a lot of song writers whose lyrics are considered poetry and some appear in literature texts!

melissaw28

I've actually been to a poetry cafe where the poet laureate read several song lyrics as poems. It gives it a different emphasis and was really interesting. He read Paved Paradise and Put Up a Parking Lot and Elenor Rigby.