first things first

It’s a thing that the average joe doesn’t think about much in song lyrics: poetry. We like to separate the two as their own entities, but when you think about it, they mirror each other considerably. I’m here to show you how Country singers and songwriters are making this connection.

One of the major elements in poetry is sound. Poets rely heavily and sometimes make decisions solely based on sounds because of the musicality they can produce in a piece. Things like rhythm and meter are an important part of this musicality. We shouldn’t be surprised that these poetic elements show up in song lyrics. I’m not just talking about rhyme—that’s obviously a given in any song and some poetry. I’m talking about the intentional culmination of poetic elements—sounds, word choice, rhyme, rhythm, meter, vivid imagery, simile, metaphor, and all these things applied to the actual instrumentals in the background—that go into song lyrics to achieve a certain effect.

It’s more prevalent in some genres than others. But for my purposes (and because it’s what I prefer to listen to, and therefore have the most familiar material to choose from), I’m choosing to focus on “country.” And since it is 2010, this thing we call “country” isn’t just reserved for the guys singing about their woman leaving them or their dying dog. Believe it or not, country artists DO sing about other subjects! But “country” is also a term used to encompass things typically not categorized that way in the past: bluegrass, rock-a-billy, and (dare I even say it?) pop-country. Like I said, people, it’s 2010. The genres are blending. Hell, Beyonce and Lady Gaga are making music videos together! Taylor Swift and Def Leppard are doing CMT Crossroads! Green Day is on Broadway!

If nothing else, I hope to show you something you may have never realized or noticed before. Even if you’re not a fan of the genre, maybe you can take what you see here and apply it to the music you love. I’m not trying to convince everyone to love Miranda Lambert (even though I think you’d be happier if you did), but I am here to shed some light on and maybe dispel a few myths you may have about Country music or Poetry, or (especially) the thought of the two combined.