Difference between poetry and song
Poetry vs song:
Poetry and song are two art forms that often go hand in hand and at the very outset, it may be rather difficult to figure out the difference between the two. Poetry and song has been part of human life ever since the beginning of civilization itself. Both these forms aim to entertain and amuse and at times, even to present one’s own views and ideas across via creative means.
What is poetry?
Poetry is a literary form of art and is one of the most popular forms of fine arts that exist in the world. Poetry can be of many sorts and can be written in combination of other art forms such as poetry in prose, poetic drama, lyrical poetry, poetic hymns and etc. Poetry has existed from the beginning of civilization itself where people have expressed their feelings and thoughts or told stories through various creative forms. However, poetry can be distinguished from other forms of arts by its use of literary devices such as similes, metaphors, symbols, imagery, repetition, allegory and other such techniques.
What is song?
A song is often sung and has a specific tune that it follows. It is a verbal form of art of which the lyrics contain a profusion of repetition and rhyming patterns. Song lyrics are written with the aim of evoking other people’s emotions, appealing to their personal experiences. The content of a song is quite upfront and direct. It hardly uses any literary devises and the reason for this is because a song is meant to be understood when heard and not read like a piece of written work.
What is the difference between song and poetry?
The difference between a song and poetry is blatantly evident as a song is meant to be sung and thereby meant to be delivered verbally whereas poetry is written and is meant to be read. The trick is discerning the difference between poetry and song lyrics. Even though they may appear quite similar at the very outset, poetry and song lyrics are actually quite different.
First and foremost, although poetry does possess a significant musical quality to it, it does not necessarily have to rhyme or to have a specific rhyming pattern. On the other hand, a song has to have a specific rhyming pattern because it is expected to comply with a certain melody or a tune. Another factor that differentiates the two is that while poetry is brimful of literary techniques such as metaphors, symbols, similes, allegory, paradoxes, irony and etc which tend to make a poem rather ambiguous and complex, a song is rather simple and easy to understand. It does not contain such complex literary techniques except for maybe repetition which is required to maintain the musicality of a song. The reason for this is because songs are required such simplicity as they are meant to be heard and understood instantly as opposed to poetry which should be read, each word analyzed carefully and understood. Poetry too utilizes repetition and yet, not in the same amount of profusion that songs do.
Poetry presents an individual’s personal opinion, emotions and feelings regarding certain aspects of life, incidents and events. A poet’s aim is to make his readers feel what he or she has been feeling or experiencing. And yet, a song’s aim is to deliver a message, to invoke such feelings in the listeners which appeal to their own personal experiences. It informs rather than making one feel. Thereby, poetry conveys the feelings of the poet while a song aims to invoke the feelings of its listeners, appealing to their own experiences.
Summary
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