# Song lyrics with poetic quality **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** music\ **Created:** [September 30, 2022, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/song-lyrics-with-poetic-quality/972521 "2022-09-30T23:09:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Face\_Intentionally\_Left\_Blank](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/face_intentionally_left_blank/32/288_2.png) [@Face\_Intentionally\_Left\_Blank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Face_Intentionally_Left_Blank)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2022, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/song-lyrics-with-poetic-quality/972521/23 "2022-10-02T19:03:40Z")
I’ve had a soft spot for the Patti Smith/Bruce Springsteen song, “Because the Night.” [Bruce had trouble with it, was dissatisfied with how it was progressing, so he gave it to Patti.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Because_the_Night#History) I’ll just quote a short section to stay within Fair Use constraints, but the linked video has them all. > With love we sleep > With doubt the vicious circle > Turn and burns > Without you I cannot live > Forgive, the yearning burning > I believe it’s time, too real to feel > So touch me now, touch me now, touch me now > Because the night belongs to lovers [![](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/CWF_SzeCxZY/hqdefault.jpg "Pattie Smith - Because The Night Original Lyrics") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CWF_SzeCxZY) ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2022, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/song-lyrics-with-poetic-quality/972521/24 "2022-10-02T19:21:55Z")
Yeah, Patti and Bruce are both poets. ---
**Author:** ![anny\_m](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/96bed5/32.png) [@anny\_m](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/anny_m)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2022, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/song-lyrics-with-poetic-quality/972521/25 "2022-10-02T21:25:06Z")
Laura Nyro, _December’s Boudoir_ > December will bear our affair, > Running on streets of delight and Decemberry ice. But a lot of Laura Nyro qualifies. I’ve long had a special fondness for _The Confession_: > Oh I hate my winsome lover > Tell him I’ve had others at my breast > But tell him he’s held my heart > And only now am I a virgin > I confess, I confess ---
**Author:** ![Bullitt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bullitt/32/5725_2.png) [@Bullitt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bullitt)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2022, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/song-lyrics-with-poetic-quality/972521/26 "2022-10-02T21:53:29Z")
Another from Paul Simon, _The Boxer_, sung by Simon and Garfunkel and released in 1969: _Asking only workman’s wages_ _I come looking for a job_ _But I get no offers_ _Just a come-on from the whores on Seventh Avenue_ _I do declare there were times when I was so lonesome_ _I took some comfort there_ ---
**Author:** ![Bullitt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bullitt/32/5725_2.png) [@Bullitt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bullitt)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2022, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/song-lyrics-with-poetic-quality/972521/27 "2022-10-02T21:58:59Z")
I often quote the second line here, bolded, to tell people to get back in the ring and take another swing back at life when it hits you hard. From Angus and Malcolm Young and Brian Johnson of AC/DC, the rock classic _You Shook Me All Night Long_: _Had to cool me down to take another round_ _ **Now I’m back in the ring to take another swing** _ _That the walls were shaking, the Earth was quaking_ _My mind was aching and we were making it_ _And you shook me all night long_ ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2022, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/song-lyrics-with-poetic-quality/972521/28 "2022-10-02T22:10:37Z")
I LOVE AC/DC, but they are no Dylan or Cohen 😂. They are just more… explicit. Though I love me some juicy Bon Scott lyrics. ---
**Author:** ![Onthefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/9de053/32.png) [@Onthefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Onthefly)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2022, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/song-lyrics-with-poetic-quality/972521/29 "2022-10-02T23:29:21Z")
Oh the night came undone like a party dress And fell at her feet in a beautiful mess The smoke and the whiskey came home in her curls And they crept through the dreams of the barroom girls Barroom Girls. Gillian Welch ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2022, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/song-lyrics-with-poetic-quality/972521/30 "2022-10-02T23:46:25Z")
If language were liquid It would be rushing in Instead here we are In a silence more eloquent Than any word could ever be -Suzanne Vega ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2022, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/song-lyrics-with-poetic-quality/972521/31 "2022-10-02T23:47:00Z")
Gentle on My Mind - Glenn Campbell [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/mfMnNqn-hKg/maxresdefault.jpg "Gentle On My Mind (Remastered 2001)") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mfMnNqn-hKg) ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2022, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/song-lyrics-with-poetic-quality/972521/32 "2022-10-02T23:52:02Z")
“All I wanna do is have a little fun before I die” Says the man next to me out of nowhere It’s apropos of nothing, he says his name is William I’m sure he’s Bill or Billy or Mac or Buddy And he’s plain ugly to me And I wonder if he’s ever had a day of fun in his whole life [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/ClbmWkbocoY/maxresdefault.jpg "Sheryl Crow - All I Wanna Do") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ClbmWkbocoY) ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2022, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/song-lyrics-with-poetic-quality/972521/33 "2022-10-02T23:56:02Z")
Here’s part of a song with insightful lyrics – at least as good as Dylan’s – and one that had quite an influence on me in my formative years. > [@](#): > > Pa pa pa pa > Papa oom ma mow mow > Papa oom mow mow > Pa pa pa oom ma ma ma mow > Papa oom mow mow > Di di dit - papa oom ma mow mow > Papa oom mow mow > > Di di dit - pa pa pa oom ma ma ma mow > Papa oom mow mow… ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2022, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/song-lyrics-with-poetic-quality/972521/34 "2022-10-03T02:00:18Z")
> [@Musicat](#): > > Here’s part of a song with insightful lyrics – at least as good as Dylan’s – and one that had quite an influence on me in my formative years. When I was in high school, an English teacher, in her quest to make the course more relevant, assigned the class to find song lyrics that were poetic. Try to imagine a 17-year old girl reading this in a totally emotionless voice Sha-na-na-na, sha-na-na-na-na, ahh-do Sha-na-na-na, sha-na-na-na-na, ahh-do Sha-na-na-na, sha-na-na-na-na, ahh-do Sha-na-na-na, sha-na-na-na-na Ahh, yip-yip-yip-yip-yip-yip-yip-yip Mum-mum-mum-mum-mum-mum, get a job Sha-na-na-na, sha-na-na-na-na ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2022, 2:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/song-lyrics-with-poetic-quality/972521/35 "2022-10-03T02:03:10Z")
Brice Cockburn has so many little sketches, almost haikus: . _After the rain in the streets light flows like blood_ _I can just taste salt on the humid wind_ _Here comes that gasoline_ _Spreading hungry rainbow over shiny black tar_ “After The Rain” . _Sun went down looking like the eye of God_ _Behind icy mist and stark bare trees_ _Inside the dim empty cinema two guys in leather jackets_ _Glance at each other and shiver_ _‘They never built these places with winter in mind’_ After a few more scenes, he ends with: _I wonder if I’ll end up like Bernie in his dream_ _A displaced person in some foreign border town_ _Waiting for a train part hope part myth_ _While the station changes hands_ _Or just sitting at home growing tenser with the times_ _Or like that guy in ‘The Seventh Seal’_ _Watching the newly dead dance across the hills_ _Or wearing this leather jacket shivering with a friend_ _While the eye of God blazes at us like the sun…_ “How I Spent My Fall Vacation” . He ends most (all?) of his concerts with a solo acoustic reflection: _All the diamonds in this world_ _That mean anything to me_ _Are conjured up by wind and sunlight_ _Sparkling on the sea_ ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2022, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/song-lyrics-with-poetic-quality/972521/36 "2022-10-03T02:32:15Z")
It may not be high art poetry, but I’ve always had a soft spot for country music lyrics. Sittin’ on the front porch on a summer afternoon In a straightback chair on two legs, leans against the wall Watch the kids a’ playin’ with June bugs on a string And chase the glowin’ fireflies when evenin’ shadows fall _- Dolly Parton_ The man who preached the funeral Said it really was a simple way to die He laid down to rest one afternoon And never opened up his eyes They hired me and Fred and Joe To dig the grave and carry up some chairs It took us seven hours And I guess we must have drunk a case of beer. _- Tom T. Hall_ The silence of a falling star Lights up a purple sky And as I wonder where you are I’m so lonesome, I could cry _- Hank Williams_ She played tambourine with a silver jingle And she must have known the word to at least a million tunes, But the one most requested By the man she knew as Cowboy Was the late night benediction at the Y’all Come Back Saloon. \*- Sharon Vaughn ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2022, 2:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/song-lyrics-with-poetic-quality/972521/37 "2022-10-03T02:51:05Z")
> [@Kent\_Clark](#): > > When I was in high school, an English teacher, in her quest to make the course more relevant, assigned the class to find song lyrics that were poetic. Try to imagine a 17-year old girl reading this in a totally emotionless voice > > Sha-na-na-na, sha-na-na-na-na, ahh-do… Steve Allen had a comedy routine much like that. (ca, 1960’s) ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2022, 3:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/song-lyrics-with-poetic-quality/972521/38 "2022-10-03T03:06:21Z")
More Paul and Artie: Every day’s an endless stream of cigarettes and magazines But each town looks the same to me, the movies and the factories And every stranger’s face I see reminds me that I long to be Homeward bound, I wish I was ---
**Author:** ![peccavi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peccavi/32/388_2.png) [@peccavi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/peccavi)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2022, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/song-lyrics-with-poetic-quality/972521/39 "2022-10-03T14:02:28Z")
This Jimmy Ruffin song just came on the radio on the way to work: **What Becomes of the Brokenhearted?** _The roots of love grow all around_ _But for me they come a-tumblin’ down_ _Every day heartaches grow a little stronger_ _I can’t stand this pain much longer_ _I walk in shadows searching for light_ _Cold and alone, no comfort in sight_ _Hoping and praying for someone to care_ _Always moving and goin’ nowhere_ _What becomes of the broken-hearted_ _Who had love that’s now departed?_ _I know I’ve got to find_ _Some kind of peace of mind_ _Help me_ ---
**Author:** ![bob\_2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bob_2/32/3341_2.png) [@bob\_2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bob_2)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2022, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/song-lyrics-with-poetic-quality/972521/40 "2022-10-03T21:41:24Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > Why don’t we just give 94.2% of Dylan’s stuff an automatic bye in. Dylan Thomas? It is spring, moonless night in the small town, starless and bible-black, the cobblestreets silent and the hunched, courters’-and-rabbits’ wood limping invisible down to the sloeblack, slow, black, crowblack, fishingboatbobbing sea. The houses are blind as moles (though moles see fine to-night in the snouting, velvet dingles) or blind as Captain Cat there in the muffled middle by the pump and the town clock, the shops in mourning, the Welfare Hall in widows’ weeds. And all the people of the lulled and dumbfound town are sleeping now. ---
**Author:** ![Al128](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/al128/32/16541_2.png) [@Al128](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Al128)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2022, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/song-lyrics-with-poetic-quality/972521/41 "2022-10-04T01:47:20Z")
. … and the moon rose over an open field … ---
**Author:** ![Bullitt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bullitt/32/5725_2.png) [@Bullitt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bullitt)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2022, 4:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/song-lyrics-with-poetic-quality/972521/42 "2022-10-04T04:47:25Z")
Love that song. … and we walked off to look for America… [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/song-lyrics-with-poetic-quality/972521.md?page=1)