Poetry and Music
Composed, produced, and remixed: the greatest hits of poems about music.
Poetry and music have been intertwined for thousands of years. In antiquity, poems were often sung: the first lyric poets in ancient Greece performed their work to the accompaniment of the lyre, and the oldest anthology of Chinese poetry, the Shijing, was a collection of songs. In southern Europe in the middle ages, the popularity of troubadour poets granted them unprecedented freedom of speech and social influence in their time, and their lyrical work would influence European poetry for centuries. The ballad form continues to be a common form for both poems and songs. Emily Dickinson famously wrote her sometimes irreverent poems to the rhythms and forms of church hymns, and more recent poets such as W.H. Auden, J.D. McClatchy, and Eileen Myles have written successful opera libretti.
Today poets still draw on the forms and rhythms of different musical traditions, from jazz, rap, and hip-hop to folk songs and country music. In this collection, we’ve selected poems, articles, and audio and video material that touches on the dynamic, ongoing relationship between these two art forms.
If you’re ready for some deep cuts, you can explore more musically inspired poems here.
“Que Sera Sera”
A. Van Jordan
Ornithology
Lynda Hull
The Homecoming Singer
Jay Wright
In Memory of the Rock Band Breaking Circus
Stephanie Burt
Omni–Albert Murray
Elizabeth Alexander
Note Blue
Kyle Dargan
Sam Patterson, Harlem, NY: Dec. 12, 1924
Tyehimba Jess
- Christine Gosnay
From the magazine:
Listening to Townes Van Zandt
Am I Special
Rebecca Wolff
Memphis Resurrection
Honorée Fanonne Jeffers
Two Guitars
Victor Hernández Cruz
Song and Dance
Alan R. Shapiro
Thanking My Mother for Piano Lessons
Diane Wakoski
- Daisy Fried
From the magazine:
No God in Us but Song
- Sarah Lindsay
From the magazine:
Zucchini Shofar
Love
Samuel Taylor Coleridge
When Lucille Bogan Sings "Shave 'Em Dry"
Aimee Nezhukumatathil
ABBA
Dennis Cooper
The Fair Singer
Andrew Marvell
- Tara Betts
From the magazine:
Hip Hop Analogies
Let's Put It To Music
Johnny Cash
Canary
Rita Dove
Romantics
Lisel Mueller
- A.E. Stallings
From the magazine:
Blackbird Etude
- Robert Wrigley
From the magazine:
Soundings
Perfect Pitch
Peter Pereira
- W. S. Di Piero
From the magazine:
Solo R&B Vocal Underground
- Paul Zimmer
From the magazine:
Dog Music
Street Musicians
John Ashbery
Vivaldi
Stuart Dybek
To the Nightingale
Countess of Winchilsea Anne Finch
- Alicia Ostriker
From the magazine:
Song
“I Broke the Spell That Held Me Long”
William Cullen Bryant
- Frank Marshall Davis
From the magazine:
Charlie Parker
- Ashanti Anderson
From the magazine:
Self-Portrait as Kendrick Lamar, Laughing to the Bank
John Lennon
Mary Jo Salter
- Jamila Woods
From the magazine:
Ode to Herb Kent
Ode for Donny Hathaway
Wanda Coleman
Ode to a Nightingale
John Keats
The Black Cock
Ishmael Reed
In the House of the Voice of Maria Callas
Steven Orlen
- Roya Marsh
From the magazine:
Ode to Fetty Wap (written after strip club)
- Kazim Ali
From the magazine:
From “The Voice of Sheila Chandra”
Dear John, Dear Coltrane
Michael S. Harper
The Weary Blues
Langston Hughes
Iowa Blues Bar Spiritual
Juan Felipe Herrera
- Lynn Powell
From the magazine:
Kind of Blue
Blues for Almost Forgotten Music
Roxane Beth Johnson
- Yusef Komunyakaa
From the magazine:
Togetherness
- Bruce Smith
From the magazine:
Obbligato
Sensitivity
Jake Adam York
- Sandra Beasley
From the magazine:
The Piano Speaks
- Patricia Smith
From the magazine:
Hip-Hop Ghazal
Groovin’ Low
A. B. Spellman
- A.E. Stallings
From the magazine:
Triolet on a Line Apocryphally Attributed to Martin Luther
Grateful Dead Tapes
Ed Skoog
- Eboni Hogan
From the magazine:
Cardi B Tells Me about Myself
- Rowan Ricardo Phillips
From the magazine:
Little Song
Loud Looks
Douglas Manuel
Walking Parker Home
Bob Kaufman
- Gregory Djanikian
From the magazine:
In the Elementary School Choir
I Hear America Singing
Walt Whitman
War Ballad
Stanley Moss
A New National Anthem
Ada Limón
De Linin’ ub De Hymns
Daniel Webster Davis
A Duck's Tune
LeAnne Howe
Wade in the Water
Tracy K. Smith
The Corn-Stalk Fiddle
Paul Laurence Dunbar
A Song for St. Cecilia's Day, 1687
John Dryden
- Dominique Christina
From the magazine:
Chain Gang
- Keith Leonard
From the magazine:
Boléro
The Idea of Order at Key West
Wallace Stevens
Song VII (“My song has put off her adornments”)
Rabindranath Tagore
- Evie Shockley
From the magazine:
senzo
Abt Vogler
Robert Browning
A Musical Instrument
Elizabeth Barrett Browning
Forever Words
Paul Muldoon
‘My Music Is Words’
Lavelle Porter
- Margo Price
From the magazine:
Learning to Fly
Opening Up
Ruth Graham
Voicing Counterpoint
Kyla Marshell
Bad Poem, Great Song
Claire Dederer
Scraps of History
John Freeman
Desire to Burn
Tim Appelo
Man of the Moment
RJ Smith
How a Resurrection Really Feels
Brandon Stosuy
Langston Hughes and the Broadway Blues
Franklin Bruno
Odd Futurism
Bethlehem Shoals
When You’re Strange
Daniel Nester
These Charming Men
Kimberly Reyes
Jazz as Communication
Langston Hughes
- James Longenbach
From the magazine:
The Music of Poetry
- Laura Schwendinger
From the magazine:
A Sort of Music
- Adam Kirsch
From the magazine:
How Ya Like Me Now
- Nate Marshall
From the magazine:
Blueprint for BreakBeat Writing
- Tara Betts
From the magazine:
Life Is Good
- Quraysh Ali Lansana
From the magazine:
Art, Artifice, and Artifact
- Rhymefest
From the magazine:
My Life Is a Poem
- Sally Timms
From the magazine:
Poetry Out Loud
- Neko Case
From the magazine:
My Flaming Hamster Wheel of Panic About Publicly Discussing Poetry in This Respected Forum
Poetry at the Threshold
Peter Gizzi
- Peter Campion
From the magazine:
Rhetoric, Music, America
Classic Lineup
Rodney Koeneke
Classic Breakup
Rodney Koeneke
'I set about writing wanting to give you something I love'
Duriel E. Harris
Impossible Music/2 [78s, 45s, EPs, LPs]
David Meltzer
Impossible Music/3 [Tracking]
David Meltzer
Impossible Music /4/ Making Music
David Meltzer
Impossible Music /5/ Making Music
David Meltzer
DWYCK: a Cipher on Hip Hop poetics Part 1
LaTasha N. Nevada Diggs
DWYCK : a Cipher on Hip Hop poetics Part 2
LaTasha N. Nevada Diggs
DWYCK : a Cipher on Hip Hop poetics Part 3
LaTasha N. Nevada Diggs
Roll Over Ezra: Musical Adventures with a Literary Band
Cornelius Eady
Poetry Is in the Streets
David Lau
MaximusRocknRoll: Willie 'Loco' Alexander
Garrett Caples
Julien Poirier: Wet Noodles & Songs
Brian Lucas
Defining a Punk Literary Aesthetic
Christopher Soto
My Heavy Metal Years
Brandon Brown
Lullaby and Goodnight
Alli Warren
On Failure
Alli Warren