Although I taught English in high school, the subject of literature rarely came up when I met my main friends there. Being soccer coaches, most of our discussions were about that particular sport or others that are popular in our culture.
One of the two physical education teachers on our coaching staff glanced at a stack of papers that he had placed on the desk in the soccer office. The contents were poems my students had been assigned to write, so the obviously bored gym teacher decided to read the first one out loud.
We laughed a little at his exaggerated elocution, and after two or three poems he gave up. Her subsequent confession wouldn’t have surprised me now, but my younger idealistic self back then found it almost unbelievable.
“The only poem I can recite even a single line from is the one they use in that song,” he said. “That one from the Moody Blues.”
She hadn’t needed to say the first few words, “Take a deep breath of the gathering gloom,” for me to know she was talking about Nights in satin white. If he had been a more avid fan of that band, he might have used painted smilea lesser known song from his long distance travel album.
The Moody Blues successfully accomplished the feat twice, but other artists have also managed to insert original poems into their songs. The most famous example is Jim Morrison, who wrote and recited an american prayer on the Doors album with the same title.
Ambrosia bassist Joe Puerta wrote a poem that he recites to introduce his song. star cowboy in the album A place I’ve never traveledand Ricky Wilson of the Kasiser Chiefs wrote a two-verse piece in 2014 to close cannons from the Education, Education, Education and War album.
Occasionally artists have decided to take a poem that is already part of our literary history and translate it into song. Here are four classic poems that have been recorded as songs by popular artists.
the bandit
Folk singer Phil Ochs put an acoustic twist on this poem by Alfred Noyes, resulting in a theme from the I’m not going to leave album.
The bells
This eerie epic poem by Edgar Allan Poe was made happier by the jangly rhythm of Ochs’s guitar in a song by All the news that is fit to sing.
Nice Nice Very Nice
Progressive rock foursome Ambrosia turned some verses by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. into the opening track of their debut album, adding a catchy chorus and a chaotic but charming musical bridge.
under the greenwood tree
Shakespeare has been an obvious influence on writers of all genres, and folk rock singer Donovan transformed this Bard sonnet into a beautiful song about the use your love like heaven album.