Thursday, December 10, 2015

Your Song


Every song has the power to be a poem. Despite the lack of rhyme or stanza in most songs, each contains a beat and powerful lyric that tell a story. My song, Your Song, by Elton John if written down without a soundtrack, could most easily be a poem. Even though there is no distinct rhyming pattern or stanza in it there are almost rhymes and almost patterns. Each verse roughly has four lines, and each line has 10-12 syllables, this doesn't exactly make it a sonnet though. I did find a couple rhymes as well, moss and cross, song and turned on, mean and seen, do and blue.... These usually follow one another in a verse... I sat on the roof and kicked off the moss/Well, a few of the verses, well, they've got me quite cross/But the sun's been quite kind while I wrote this song/It's for people like you that keep it turned on. But poems do not have to rhyme; they only must contain language that is different from every day literature and tell a story. John's song is speaking from the heart to his lover, he is simply saying "if I had any other skill set, or any other job I would give you the greatest piece of work I could create. But, because I am only an artist this song, our song, will have to do." It is an incredibly beautiful piece and has the loveliest accompaniment, which Elton plays by himself in concert, a talent many modern artists lack. Simply the fact that it is a beautiful song with an even more beautiful meaning does it for me; Your Song is poetry.

1 comment:

  1. I used to listen to a lot of Elton John and I would agree that this song always had a structure that reminds me of a poem. And I definitely think that the words Elton John sings gain a sense of emotion and story being a song that they wouldn't have if they were simply read as a poem.

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