Lyric Poetry Examples - Analysis Of The Best Poetry In Song Lyrics

I am passionate about poetic song lyrics because great lyrics can make a song truly meaningful and emotional. It’s a gift the poet gives to the world. Let’s explore some of the best examples of that in this post.

Just in case the songs and analysis in this post are not enough for you, and you want more poetic music, here is a full blog posts on songs with great poetry.

Most Poetic Song Lyric

The most poetic song lyric comes from a very unexpected source. It’s from Led Zeppelin’s Stairway To Heaven. Led Zeppelin are more known as rockers, but this line is perhaps the best, most vivid, and imaginative in all music:

“There’s a lady who thinks all that glitters is gold, and she’ building a stairway to heaven.”

After hearing this line, one can immediately picture a stairway to heaven, and a kind of a woman that thinks that all that glitters is gold. That’s what makes this poetry so potent.

People describe poetry in many ways, but one way to look at it is as the act of creating imagery through words.

Songs That Include The Best Poetry In The World

I had an idea to include some of the best Shakespeare’s poetry lines in two of my songs. The first song uses a line from Shakespeare’s famous Sonnet 18:

“Shall I compare the to a summer’s day? You are more lovely in every way.”

Here is the full song:

Here is a post full of poetic songs similar to this one just in case if you liked this song.

Personally, I enjoyed using Shakespeare’s poetry and quotes in much music, so I made another song that used even more of his best lines. It’s this song with Shakespeare’s quotes:

My favorite lines from this song are:

“Love is a smoke made with the fume of sighs.”

and:

“In your heart of hearts.”

Leonard Cohen’s Lyric Poetry

Leonard Cohen is widely regarded as one of the greatest western poets who are songwriters. To me, he is actually the best with Bob Dylan being a close second. The reason I choose Leonard Cohen is because his metaphors tend to be deeper and richer. Although they both have absolutely great poetry.

Let’s examine the lyrics and poetry of Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah. First, there are interwoven stories in this song. There is a story of king David who played music for God, and God loved that music. Then, there is the contemporary story of a couple who fell out of love with the man both lamenting it while at the same time being unkind and downright nasty.

Here is a part of the poetry in the first verse:

“I heard there was a magic chord that David played, and it pleased the lord, but you don’t really care for music do you?”

That’s quite mean description of the woman. What kind of a heartless and soulless woman would not be touched by music that even the god loved?

Notice that we get all that imagery and both stories in only one line! That’s incredible writing. Here is the full song:

Leonard Cohen had many more incredible songs. Perhaps one day I’ll dedicate a full blog post to them, but for this post, let’s move forward to poetic lyric examples from other songwriters. I’ll simply leave you with this page I made about Leonard Cohen’s Who By Fire and my cover of that ballad.

Poetic Lyrics In Bob Dylan’s Music

Many of Bob Dylan’s songs can be used as examples of poetic song lyrics, but in my mind, the poetry in the lyrics of Mr. Tambourine Man stands head and shoulders above the rest of Dylan’s songs.

Let’s read this verse together:

And take me disappearing through the smoke rings of my mind
Down the foggy ruins of time
Far past the frozen leaves
The haunted frightened trees
Out to the windy beach
Far from the twisted reach of crazy sorrow

This poetry is immediately enchanting, and starting with “from the smoke rings of my minds down the foggy ruins of time” after just one line we end up in some dreamed up lost kingdom in the foggy ruins of time. This is one of the most masterful lines of poetry in song lyrics.

But this is just the beginning. The long takes us further…”past frozen leaves, down the sandy beach…” and much further to “Far from the twisted reach of crazy sorrow.”

Wow – “twisted reach of crazy sorrow” is such a powerful line if you picture it. The hero of the song can’t get away from the reach of sorrow even even traveling thousands of years into a different universe. The sorrow follows him. That’s poetry. That’s creativity. That’s also psychology. Bravo to Bob Dylan.

What Makes Poetic Song Lyrics So Emotionally Potent

When we can picture in our mind what the lyrics of the song are telling us, and that imagery is emotionally-stirring, that makes music poetic and emotional.

A part of creating such imagery is the use of literary tools like metaphors and similes. Here are a couple of blog posts with collections of songs with great metaphors and great songs with similes.

Here is a collection of songs with the most beautiful imagery.

If you want to write your own poetry, here is an blog post about how to write metaphors, which can be a great and fun start.