Monday, August 15, 2016

SONG vs. POEM

THE HELL WITH DRAWERS by Will Oldham: "The difference between lyrics and poetry is that I don’t understand poetry. I don’t understand biology either. Someone must be there to guide me through the meanings of things. Lyrics, recorded and sung, have the opportunity to sink long and thoroughly; they can work on and with the subconscious. We have long ago passed the time when poetry is memorized without such aid, and sitting there on the paper a poem makes me feel ignorant and insane." Click HERE to read the rest of Will Oldhams's "The Hell with Drawers." 

Click HERE listen to "I See A Darkness by Will Oldham (aka Bonnie Prince Billy)


THEN

Read the verses below. What's the tone? How does it make you feel? Then listen to it HERE (click orange arrow). Is the tone different? Is your emotional response stronger? Does Sting emphasize any part more than others? How does that effect the song's interpretation?

"Fields Of Gold"
You'll remember me when the west wind moves
Upon the fields of barley
You'll forget the sun in his jealous sky
As we walk in the fields of gold

So she took her love
For to gaze awhile
Upon the fields of barley
In his arms she fell as her hair came down
Among the fields of gold

Will you stay with me, will you be my love
Among the fields of barley
We'll forget the sun in his jealous sky
As we lie in the fields of gold

See the west wind move like a lover so
Upon the fields of barley
Feel her body rise when you kiss her mouth
Among the fields of gold
I never made promises lightly
And there have been some that I've broken
But I swear in the days still left
We'll walk in the fields of gold
We'll walk in the fields of gold

Many years have passed since those summer days
Among the fields of barley
See the children run as the sun goes down
Among the fields of gold
You'll remember me when the west wind moves
Upon the fields of barley
You can tell the sun in his jealous sky
When we walked in the fields of gold
When we walked in the fields of gold
When we walked in the fields of gold



11 comments:

  1. First of all, there is no way I can read this song objectively. Sorry. I heard this song growing up everywhere, then I listened endlessly to a version I adored on my Celtic Woman album I had bought, and then my great-aunt insisted on us listening to it during her funeral as we quietly mourned. Okay, listen. I was raised in a singing family, have taken choir for years and have a pitch and tonal patterned memory. It has become literally impossible to read these words without immediately launching myself into the mental melody. There are some nuances that are different, yeah. It looks weird- visually- when a line repeats like eight times, whereas in spoken language such a technique is used to generate emphasis on a certain line. It’s also weird when there’s a lot of vocalizations I’m mentally fitting in between certain lines that are not put in, either noted or phonetically notated. I cannot listen to this song without some melody pulling between the words; it’s who I am. It’s what I grew into doing. I was made to sing, and song lyrics cannot be poetry when there is a melody I can still hear. It’s actually pretty inconvenient when I know songs with, like, paragraphs of Shakespeare as the lyrics and then I actually have to read the play and I’m humming along in the class.

    In the short of it; it changes nothing for me personally, but only because I already knew the song.

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  2. “Even recited, words expressively coded and adjacented are like a miracle of phonetics but do not mean what they should. It’s about the structure, but a poem holds nothing up and nothing in. It sits there. And in a public space, a read poem fills the air with signs that I cannot use to direct myself anywhere except the restroom or the sidewalk, or inside of myself…I also do not like drawers. There must be shelves, where the contents are visible. When things are hidden in drawers, they do not exist. Doors must be open. Prose is shelving.”
    So when he references to drawers, does he mean that he wants a writer or poet to get their point across? Maybe not directly but in an easier manner to connect the dots rather than leaving the reader with vague words and stranded on an island with no sense of direction.
    “Many years have passed since those summer days
    Among the fields of barley
    See the children run as the sun goes down
    Among the fields of gold
    You'll remember me when the west wind moves
    Upon the fields of barley
    You can tell the sun in his jealous sky
    When we walked in fields of gold
    When we walked in fields of gold
    When we walked in fields of gold”
    I feel as though when he repeats the last line, he tries to put a huge emphasis. It might be to allow the reader to have a lasting impression of the song or to get a point across.

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  3. This may be weird, but I listen to Sting’s “Fields of Gold” nearly every day. This song part of the play list at my job, so while reading those lyrics all I could really think about was my job. But taking it back from there, thinking about while I hear this song at work, it really calms be down. While at work I tend to daydream to pass the time, and this song always sends me off to daydreams. It’s very calming and peaceful and reminds me of a summer day, out in a field as the sun is setting casting an amber glow. On the other hand, the first song that we had to listen to “I see darkness,” made me really depressed. It was sad and moody and personally nothing I would want to listen to by my own free will. The song sounded like a friend has recently passed, and the artist is in mourning of them. The two songs could both be about losing a loved one (be it a break up or death) but the tone and mood of the two songs could be nothing but different. Sting’s song is a bit more upbeat and “cheerful” (I use that word lightly), but it invokes a brighter response than the other song. Bonnie Prince Billy’s song is slow and sad, especially with the lyric video, that video is filled with dark tinted imagery causing it to be more melancholy than the song alone would. While both of these songs can be about loss the tone of the song and the beat and tempo create different feelings in listeners.

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  4. When I write a poem it's usually because I am thinking hard about something. When Arlan talked about writing a song, he talked about songs moving people to action, which could be political or otherwise. In my opinion that is the divide between the two. Music and emotion are more intertwined: music makes you feel an emotion much more easily than reading does, and e-motion sets a person in motion (it could be more of a mental motion for some people. A lot the time I will hear a song and maybe not DO anything, but it will set me thinking about whether I am seeing something clearly or not). Poetry can make us feel too, but I think that it is harder for this to happen. A lot of the time, poetry is so indirect that you read it once thinking, "this sounds great!" and then you get to the end and you realize you don't know what it was about. Not that this is bad, just to point out that poems are often more indirect than songs. When i think of poetry, I think of John Donne, whose poems are often called "metaphysical," and so I think that this would support my thesis about poetry being [generally] more intellectual and songs being [generally] more emotional.

    I found the Bonnie Prince song to be very straightforward in its meaning, which I liked, although it was very sad in tone. The Sting song I found to be sentimental upon reading, and then like a movie soundtrack upon listening. I liked the metaphor about drawers vs. shelves. Definitely something to think about in my own writing.

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  5. After just reading the lyrics to Fields of Gold, the tone I pull away is one of peace, love, and memory. The scene of a wide open “field of barley” and “fields of gold” contribute to this mood. The lyrics make me feel calm and relaxed, but in a natural way, like how you feel after taking a nap on the beach.
    Listening to the music, the tone seems a lot more sentimental than I anticipated. The pacing and melody of the singer add to the feeling of personal connection. My emotional connection is certainly stronger. A lot of this, I believe, has to do with music being a lot easier to express tension and release. There are certain things you can do harmonically which build musical expectation, and the choice on whether or not to fill those expectations are what give a song its power.
    As far as emphasis, there the obvious repetition of lines throughout which give the listener a reference point and something familiar they can latch on to. Additionally, musically, the bass part is syncopated, meaning it emphasizes the weak part of the beat. This manifests itself musically as a sense of longing and detachment.

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  6. When I first read "Fields of Gold" as a poem it felt more romantic. I was able to be focused on the words, and fully immersed in them because they were on the page in front of me. I agree with Will Odham when he says that he feels ignorant and incapable when he reads poetry. I feel the same way too sometimes. It's as if, without a narrative or a melody I can't really piece together what it is the author is trying to say. I still admire the language and think it's beautiful, but I constantly question whether or not I'm grasping the poem's full meaning. I think poetry is just a more difficult type of writing to read. Generally, poems use very abstract language forcing you to really dissect each line. Each word is so loaded and rich because in poetry it needs to be, making it more difficult to get through. When I listened to the song, it wasn't as romantic and felt more somber because of the melody and the singer's hushed voice. That's just how I interpreted it. I did enjoy listening to the song more, but if I am ever presented with the choice of reading a poem or listening to a song I will always choose a song. Although with song you probably won't be as invested in the lyrics themselves, it's a more enjoyable medium for me. Poems are words and songs are words with melodies and beats and various interests. It is no wonder that songs evoke different tones and meanings than poems do. The song definitely made me feel more emotion than the poem did.

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  7. The Hell with Drawers-Will Oldham
    I wasn't sure what this reading was going to be about. I was pleasantly surprised that it is about furniture and not underwear. another Lol moment for me.
    I agree that some poetry is so mysterious in it's attempt to be deep that it leaves the reader with more huh/ than understanding. The reader, if they care, has to read and re-read to feel what is being said. I find there is a difference when the poetry is spoken. The added gestures, inflections in the voice, facial expressions all help to make the words express themselves. Mr. Oldham takes issue even with the spoken word. I can relate some what. I can remember having to memorize poems as a child and just being concerned with learning the words. The meaning and sentiment were not important. Side note: His description of his mind is way over the top, like the poetry on the shelves he loves.
    I See a Darkness for me was the picture of a sad, almost hopeless relationship. The words were sad, and the music was hauntingly depressing.
    Fields of Gold-The words alone gave me a sense of a long lost love, a forlorn tone. Once the music was added the bright, upbeat melody changed the meaning of the words for me. I now hear a story of aged lovers who have built a life together remembering their young love. The tone was hopeful, sensitive. Sting emphasizes the vamp of the song "When we walk in fields of gold', memories of discovered love.

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  8. The Hell with Drawers-Will Oldham
    I wasn't sure what this reading was going to be about. I was pleasantly surprised that it is about furniture and not underwear. another Lol moment for me.
    I agree that some poetry is so mysterious in it's attempt to be deep that it leaves the reader with more huh/ than understanding. The reader, if they care, has to read and re-read to feel what is being said. I find there is a difference when the poetry is spoken. The added gestures, inflections in the voice, facial expressions all help to make the words express themselves. Mr. Oldham takes issue even with the spoken word. I can relate some what. I can remember having to memorize poems as a child and just being concerned with learning the words. The meaning and sentiment were not important. Side note: His description of his mind is way over the top, like the poetry on the shelves he loves.
    I See a Darkness for me was the picture of a sad, almost hopeless relationship. The words were sad, and the music was hauntingly depressing.
    Fields of Gold-The words alone gave me a sense of a long lost love, a forlorn tone. Once the music was added the bright, upbeat melody changed the meaning of the words for me. I now hear a story of aged lovers who have built a life together remembering their young love. The tone was hopeful, sensitive. Sting emphasizes the vamp of the song "When we walk in fields of gold', memories of discovered love.

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  9. I read the Hell with drawer’s by Will Oldham first and right off the bat I was intrigued by it when he says “ The difference between lyrics and poetry is that I don’t understand poetry, I don’t understand biology either” which contrary to him are two things that I am very interested in and feel a connection to. As I read the very first stanza I found it beautiful almost how he truly specifies what it is that irks him about poetry and further along the piece he does this very effectively as well. My favorite line specifically is “My mind isn’t a sponge, it’s a parasitic death-starry glob that is big and wet and angry much of the time, feeding on itself and allowing only the choicest and most-vulnerable bits in when its blood sugar gets low. It longs for a projectile to penetrate and obliterate its oneness, and let the stockpile plenish billions.” This was my favorite part because similar to the beginning where he says he doesn’t understand poetry or biology really, he successfully integrates these components into his poetry which is ironic even that he does this so beautifully and yet along his entire piece he’s essentially complaining about the logic to his reasoning for hating it.

    As for the “Fields of Gold” as I read it what I pictured was someone reminiscing on the past and it truly made me feel a sense of romance within the song and the verses and almost nostalgic to a time way before perhaps in the writers life, a time where they shared a connection with someone in this particular place but yet the place still exists however, the connection they once shared does not ultimately setting a somber/ nostalgic tone. When I listened to the song however, it made me feel more upbeat and lively in contrast to just reading the piece, I almost expected the song to be more somber and sad perhaps instead of how it was presented in a more relaxed tone and so truly I felt a difference in emotions evoked from just the verse in contrast to the song, and almost enjoyed the feelings evoked from the simply the verses a bit more because I felt it matched the tone of the words more accurately.
    - Julissa Peralta

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  10. My favorite Sting son is actually 'Desert Rose' and I'm also remember hearing that Sting tends to write the instrumental half of the song before he gets to the lyrics. That he lets those sounds inspire the words he writes and it all comes out sounding perfect somehow. I remember that because I couldn’t really conceive of how that worked, being around 10 years old when I heard this probably didn’t help much. That the thoughts that were written down and then sung, almost literally, were plucked out of the air has always fascinated me because I can’t do that. There has always been some provoking thought to all the poetry that I write. Something had to make me feel a certain way before I could write anything that I considered to be good, and when that happened I had to write.
    On the other hand Oldham’s song was mostly the opposite. While ‘Fields of Gold’ clearly invokes some concrete imagery Oldham’s song is more of a concrete story. Everything in it is about what truly happened in his life, or the life of someone he knows. Having a drink with a friend, or talking directly about the thoughts that he has had. I found that the difference is found in the audibility of the song. Because it’s been a long time since I’ve heard fields of gold I read it without really hearing the melody in my head and was super imposing a voice of my own creation upon the words as I read. The real difference I think is the audibility that the reader imagines in their head as they read poetry and that which they actually hear as a song is sung.

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  11. In my mind this poem to me was one of a love song so to speak, it seem to be about two lovers in their younger years who would walk in the fields and do what lovers do, make out, talk, kiss and make promises to never leave each other. If I'm not mistaken they grew old together, married and had children and their children now play in those golden fields. But it will always be a sacred place to them. Just like any of us who have been fortunate enough to know what a first love is, there will be places that are sacred for things done and said. It could be a song and I think our visitor with the guitar would be the one to set it to music I liked it.

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