# Poetry question **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [May 19, 2001, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poetry-question/65874 "2001-05-19T02:21:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2001, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poetry-question/65874/1 "2001-05-19T02:21:05Z")
Can all of Emily Dickinson’s work be sung to the tune of The Yellow Rose Of Texas ? ---
**Author:** ![Balance](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ccd318/32.png) [@Balance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balance)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2001, 3:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poetry-question/65874/2 "2001-05-19T03:18:35Z")
Have you been watching Babylon 5 again? I don’t believe that it works for every poem, but I understand that it works for a significant subset of them. It’s because of the characteristic meter Dickinson used–she apparently was influenced by hymns (Methodist or Congregational, I’m not sure which), and favored the common meter of those hymns in some of her work. As it happens, that meter corresponds to the meter of “Yellow Rose of Texas”, so lyric substitution is easy. More interesting is the fact that it can reputedly be done with the “Gilligan’s Island” theme, too. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Falcon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/49beb7/32.png) [@Falcon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Falcon)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2001, 3:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poetry-question/65874/3 "2001-05-19T03:36:53Z")
All I know is that all of the ones in my high school textbook could be sung to both. And we did. In class. Repeatedly. (Man, my AP English class rocked…) ---
**Author:** ![vivalostwages](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/d07c76/32.png) [@vivalostwages](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vivalostwages)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2001, 5:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poetry-question/65874/4 "2001-05-19T05:07:12Z")
Hey, I learned that from watching **Babylon 5** too! And I teach English, for God’s sake… Did you know that “When you Wish upon a Star” can be chanted as a military cadence? You know, the songs they sing while running while the drill instructor starts the chant: D.I.: When you wish upon a star Soldiers:(when you wish upon a star) Makes no difference who you are (makes no difference who you are) I think I’d better go now… ---
**Author:** ![vivalostwages](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/d07c76/32.png) [@vivalostwages](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vivalostwages)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2001, 5:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poetry-question/65874/5 "2001-05-19T05:08:27Z")
That sad smiley was supposed to be a colon. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2001, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poetry-question/65874/6 "2001-05-19T23:46:09Z")
War Of The Worlds: Global Dispatches. Satire of how an author would write and/or experience the Martian invasion. Emily Dickinson’s defeat of the Martians described in the paper: “The Soul Selects Her Own Society; Invasion and Repulsion: A Chronological Reinterpretation Of Two Of Emily Dickinson’s Poems: A Wellsian Perspective”, quite frankly, beats the Hell out of Babylon Five. I’ve never seen the college paper as a satite form. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2001, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poetry-question/65874/7 "2001-05-20T00:22:00Z")
_singing to Yellow Rose of Texas_ o/` Because I could not stop for Death- He kindly stopped for me- The carriage held but just Ourselves- and Immortality...o/` Oh. My. God. It does work. :eek: jayjay ---
**Author:** ![Spavined\_Gelding](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/958977/32.png) [@Spavined\_Gelding](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spavined_Gelding)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2001, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poetry-question/65874/8 "2001-05-20T00:35:32Z")
The Battle Hymn of the Republic works, too. ---
**Author:** ![Rilchiam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/2bfe46/32.png) [@Rilchiam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rilchiam)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2001, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poetry-question/65874/9 "2001-05-21T01:23:01Z")
And the Gilligan’s Island theme. But y’all knew that. ---
**Author:** ![Rilchiam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/2bfe46/32.png) [@Rilchiam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rilchiam)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2001, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poetry-question/65874/10 "2001-05-21T01:35:26Z")
**And** “House of the Rising Sun”. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Angel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d26b3c/32.png) [@Johnny\_Angel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Angel)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2001, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poetry-question/65874/11 "2001-05-21T03:44:25Z")
As it happens, a lot of poems can be sung to the tune of a lot of songs. Lyrical poetry is, after all, poetry made to be sung or fashioned after the pattern of music. Dickinson favored a common lyrical form, which is common because it’s a pretty good one to write a song to, 8-6-8-6 A-B-A-B, in double meter: **There’s** a | **yel** low | **rose** of | **Tex** as That **I** | am **going** | to **see** , No | **oth** er | **fel** low | **knows** her, No **oth** | er, **on** | ly **me**. Notice that although this song does not keep too the iambic pattern, nonetheless, the more regular verse of Dickinson matches with the music quite nicely: Be **cause** | I **could** | not **stop** | for **Death** , He **kind** | ly **stopped** | for **me** ; The **carr** | iage **held** | but **just** | our **selves** And **Im** | mor **tal** | it **y**. I myself can’t quite get over the realization I made one day that _The Unquiet Grave_ could be sung to the tune of _God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen_: 'Tis I, my love, sits on your grave And will not let you sleep For I crave one kiss from your clay-cold lips And that is all I seek. ---
**Author:** ![Morgyn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morgyn/32/3041_2.png) [@Morgyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morgyn)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2001, 4:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poetry-question/65874/12 "2001-05-21T04:12:58Z")
There’s a fairly infamous filk of the theme from Gilligan’s Island sung to the tune of Stairway to Heaven. They call it “Stairway to Gilligan’s Island”. ---
**Author:** ![StephenG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/7feea3/32.png) [@StephenG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StephenG)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2001, 4:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poetry-question/65874/13 "2001-05-21T04:23:30Z")
My friend and I discovered one day that most of Edgar Allan Poe can also be sung to the _Gilligan’s Island_ tune. (Hey, it was a boring class, okay?). We also discovered that “Amazing Grace” can be sung to the same tune! ---
**Author:** ![Katisha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/bcef8e/32.png) [@Katisha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Katisha)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2001, 4:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poetry-question/65874/14 "2001-05-21T04:56:04Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Johnny Angel \* > \*\*I myself can’t quite get over the realization I made one day that _The Unquiet Grave_ could be sung to the tune of _God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen_: > \*\* So can this song from _The Pirates of Penzance_: “Tormented with the anguish dread Of falsehood unatoned, I lay upon my sleepless bed, And tossed and turned and groaned. The man who finds his conscience ache No peace at all enjoys; And as I lay in bed awake, I thought I heard a noise. (He thought he heard a noise!)” And I should also point you all in the direction of [this page](http://www.brunching.com/features/camptownraces.html). 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Whammo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8dc957/32.png) [@Whammo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whammo)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2001, 4:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poetry-question/65874/15 "2001-05-21T04:59:39Z")
I’ve heard this LONG before Babylon 5 and YES it does ruin poety. I beg you people to stop in the name of all that is holy and pure. ---
**Author:** ![They\_Call\_Me\_Sneeze](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/6a8cbe/32.png) [@They\_Call\_Me\_Sneeze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/They_Call_Me_Sneeze)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2001, 5:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poetry-question/65874/16 "2001-05-21T05:19:10Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Johnny Angel \* > \*\*As it happens, a lot of poems can be sung to the tune of a lot of songs. Lyrical poetry is, after all, poetry made to be sung or fashioned after the pattern of music. Dickinson favored a common lyrical form, which is common because it’s a pretty good one to write a song to, 8-6-8-6 A-B-A-B, in double meter: > > \*\* It’s called a ballad. Four feet, three feet, four feet, three (one foot is comprised of two syllables). I don’t know if iambic pentameter is required, but I would bet it is, otherwise you wouldn’t be able to sing it to so many songs. All ballads can be sung to (among, apparently, various other tunes) “Gilligan’s Island” and “ **Amazing Grace**.”