Chapter 2: How Poetry and Lyrics are Different

What is poetry? Here is a dictionary definition: “A verbal art written in verse using a heightened sense of language to convey feeling experience, meaning, and consciousness” (Moustaki, 2001). Poetry serves to elevate and heighten the awareness of language. “Poetic speech is speech in a style more concentrated, imaginative and powerful than ordinary speech” (Lawrence, 2001). What does “lyric” mean? According to Webster’s dictionary, the adjective “lyric” roughly means: suitable for singing, as to the accompaniment of a lyre, song-like, specifically designating poetry expressing the poet’s personal emotion or sentiment, rather than the telling of actual events. Lyrics, by definition, are lyric or lyrical. There are similarities between poetry and lyrics, but I would argue that lyrics are not simply poems set to music, but a different sort of writing altogether, with different forms, aesthetics, uses, and agenda.