lyrical poetry - OUDL Home

INTRODUCTORYThe musician substitutes for them something ofhis own which may, or may not, be better. "I onceasked an eminent musician, the late Madame Goldschmidt,why Shelley's lyrics were ill-adapted to music.She made me read aloud to her the Song of Pan andthose lovely lines To the Night, 'Swiftly walk over thewestern waves.' Then she pointed out how theverbal melody was intended to be self-sufficient inthese lyrics, how full of complicated thoughts andchangeful images the verse is, how packed with consonantsthe words are, how the tone of emotion alters,and how no one melodic phrase could be found to fitthe daedal woof of the poetic emotion" (J. A. Symonds:Essays Speculative and Suggestive, ii, 251-2).Yet the original union of song with music and withdance is not to be forgotten and is not forgotten bythe poet. Mr Drinkwater has argued with considerableforce that all poetry is lyric, "that what distinguishesother forms of poetry from lyrical is somethingother than the poetry," that "the characteristicof the lyric is that it is the product of the pure poeticenergy unassociated with other energies, and that lyricand poetry are synonymous terms." Metaphysicallythis is doubtless true. All poetry is poetry. But formy purpose, which is to treat of things as they seem,there is a difference which is recognised by readers,including the makers of anthologies of lyrics whichmay, or may not, include sonnets but will certainly notinclude pieces of dramatic, narrative, or argumentativepoetry. One feels there is a difference betweenandCome unto these yellow sandsAnd then take handsTo be or not to be, that is the question,13