Poem and song
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The differences between poem and song may become less meaningful where verse is set to music, to the point that any distinction becomes untenable. This is perhaps recognised in the way popular songs have lyrics: see list of songs by name.
However, the verse may precede in time with the tune (in the way that "Rule Britannia" was set to music, and "And did those feet in ancient time" has become the hymn "Jerusalem"), or the tune may be lost over time but the words survive, matched by a number of different tunes (this is particularly common with hymns and ballads).
Possible classifications proliferate (under anthem, ballad, blues, carol, folk song, hymn, libretto, lied, lullaby, March, praise song, round, spiritual). Nursery rhymes may be songs, or doggerel: the term doesn't imply a distinction. The ghazal is a sung form that is considered primarily poetic. See rapping, roots of hip hop music also, on the boundaries: verse+music against verse against verse set to music.
Analogously, verse drama might normally be judged (at its best) as poetry, but not consisting of poems (see dramatic verse). Again there are genres as far apart as masque and pantomime.
[edit] See anyway
- List of national anthems
- Rock and roll anthems
- List of Irish ballads
- Traditional British ballads
- "The House of the Rising Sun"
- "Stagger Lee"
- "Lift Every Voice and Sing"
- Nursery rhymes
- "Green grow the rushes"
- "Auld Lang Syne"
- "Desolation Row" — Bob Dylan
