[lit-ideas] Re: Bob Dylan - A Poet?

  • From: "Mike Geary" <atlas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Thu, 20 Oct 2005 08:51:46 -0500

Donal wants to know the difference between a poet and a songwriter. That's easy, a songwriter can pay for his own drinks.

The difference between a song and a poem? You can think about other things while listening to a song, not so reading a poem. One track minds prefer poetry.


This is my song and though the words don't belong to reason, they rhyme. That's no crime when it's rappin' time, but you can't whistle it, so this'll fit in the old pigeonhole called poetry.

Mike Geary
Memphis




----- Original Message ----- From: "Donal McEvoy" <donalmcevoyuk@xxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Thursday, October 20, 2005 3:21 AM
Subject: [lit-ideas] Re: Bob Dylan - A Poet?



Dylan - 'I'm a poet/And I know it/Hope I don't blow it'

Clearly others disagree with the first bit, and the second is accordingly not
JUSTIFIED TRUE BELIEF in the Gettier sense and therefore, accordingly, false.


My (vague) impression is that this question often tends into a pointless
academic and (essentially) definitional debate about the nature of poetry (as
opposed to song, to lyrics etc.). It maybe matters less whether we classify
Dylan's work as being poetic as whether it has - to use broader terms that
eschew a narrow definitional debate - literary and/or artistic merit.


Then again, according to the Grove Dictionary [afairfyotdb]- which on this
point I don't doubt, Dylan's work appears to have had very little influence
on what we might call known 'poets' while having a great influence on
song-writers.


On the other hand the current Poet Laureate, Andrew Motion, is a big Dylan
fan with few qualms about singing the praises of the poetic qualities of
Dylan's work.

Is there a good answer? (That is, one where we can all trump people at
dinner-parties.)

Donal
England



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