Overview
A study of the relationship between poetry and music, including poetry as song, folk traditions, and performance.
From birth through love to death, words sung or rhythmically recited stay with us. These snatches of song and poetry—from children’s rhymes to pop songs and advertising jingles—form a key part of the soundtrack of our lives. Poetry and Music explores how and why these rhymes and lyrics have such a powerful effect.
From modern Māori performing arts to Patti Smith, Beyoncé, and dub poets, we investigate how poetry and lyrics are crafted to achieve musical effects through language. We learn to analyse the relationship between sound and sense and the role of performance.
We also explore the many social roles of song, poetry, and related verbal arts. We ask how such lyrics give meaning to the daily rhythms and critical moments in our own lives and in the lives of others.
Students with a creative bent will also have the opportunity to demonstrate their learning by composing their own poems or song lyrics.
About this paper
| Paper title | Poetry and Music |
|---|---|
| Subject | English |
| EFTS | 0.15 |
| Points | 18 points |
| Teaching period | Semester 2 (On campus) |
| Domestic Tuition Fees ( NZD ) | $1,103.10 |
| International Tuition Fees | Tuition Fees for international students are elsewhere on this website. |
- Prerequisite
- One 100-level ENGL or MUSI paper (excluding ENGL 126) or 36 points
- Restriction
- ENGL 391
- Schedule C
- Arts and Music
- Contact
- More information link
View more information on the English and Linguistics Programme website
- Teaching staff
Convener: Professor Jacob Edmond
Additional lecturers are to be confirmed but will likely include staff from English, Te Tumu (the School of Māori, Pacific, and Indigenous Studies), and Music.- Paper Structure
ENGL 219 focuses on developing skills and critical thinking in the study of poetry and song, and the relationship between poetry and music. The course is not intended to give you comprehensive knowledge of a particular period, national literature, or musical genre. Instead, it focuses on developing your understanding of the role of culturally and historically contingent conventions and their subversion in both poetry and song. We focus on three overlapping kinds of conventions:
- Conventions of form and genre (e.g., ballad form, 12-bar blues, haka), which shape the relationship between sound and meaning in poetry and song;
- Conventions of performance, which relate to the social roles and contexts of poetry and song;
- Media conventions, which govern the meaning and use of media technologies in poetry and song.
The course is, correspondingly, divided into three interrelated parts:
- Sound and Meaning: develops skills in identifying, describing, and analysing the interplay between sound and meaning in poetry and song and the conventions that shape this interplay.
- Performance: enhances your ability to identify, describe, and analyse the role of performance in poetry and song, including the social conventions through which performance serves as an expression of individual and collective identity.
- Technology and Media: enhances your skills in analysing the role of media technologies in poetry and song and the media conventions that poetry and song deploy and at times subvert.
- Teaching Arrangements
The paper involves one one-hour and one two-hour class each week with the second hour of the two-hour class generally being devoted to tutorial-style discussion.
- Textbooks
All texts and sound recordings will be made available through Blackboard, eReserve, and the library.
- Graduate Attributes Emphasised
- Global perspective, Interdisciplinary perspective, Lifelong learning, Scholarship, Communication, Critical thinking, Cultural understanding, Information literacy, Research, Self-motivation, Teamwork.
View more information about Otago's graduate attributes. - Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, you will be able to:
1. Identify and describe common forms, techniques, and performance-based aspects of poetry and song.
2. Analyse the effect and significance of all these features in a given poem or song, relating them to the content of the work.
3. Identify and describe some differences in the conventions and social roles of poetry and song, and in the relationship between music and poetry, in various genres, from different cultures and historical periods, and utilising a range of technologies.
4. Critically reflect on your own assumptions about the conventions and social roles of poetry and song, and on the assumptions of other cultures and historical periods.
5. Present a coherent argument about a poem or song based on analysis of its content and form and on critical reflection of the assumptions about poetry and song that inform the work.- Assessment details
- Tutorial Responses / Minute Papers (brief response papers to be completed in class each week): 20%
- Assignment (essay or creative work and commentary): 40%
- Final Examination: 40%
Overview
A study of the relationship between poetry and music, including poetry as song, folk traditions, and performance.
From birth through love to death, words sung or rhythmically recited stay with us. These snatches of song and poetry - from children's rhymes to pop songs and advertising jingles - form a key part of the soundtrack of our lives. Poetry and Music explores how and why these rhymes and lyrics have such a powerful effect.
From modern Māori performing arts to Patti Smith, Beyoncé and dub poets, we investigate how poetry and lyrics are crafted to achieve musical effects through language. We learn to analyse the relationship between sound and sense and the role of performance.
We also explore the many social roles of song, poetry and related verbal arts. We ask how such lyrics give meaning to the daily rhythms and critical moments in our own lives and in the lives of others.
Students with a creative bent will also have the opportunity to demonstrate their learning by composing their own poems or song lyrics.
About this paper
| Paper title | Poetry and Music |
|---|---|
| Subject | English |
| EFTS | 0.15 |
| Points | 18 points |
| Teaching period | Not offered in 2027 (On campus) |
| Domestic Tuition Fees | Tuition Fees for 2027 have not yet been set |
| International Tuition Fees | Tuition Fees for international students are elsewhere on this website. |
- Prerequisite
- One 100-level ENGL or MUSI paper (excluding ENGL 126) or 36 points
- Restriction
- ENGL 391
- Schedule C
- Arts and Music
- Contact
- More information link
View more information on the English and Linguistics Programme website.
- Teaching staff
Convener: Professor Jacob Edmond
Additional lecturers are to be confirmed but will likely include staff from English, Music and Te Tumu (the School of Māori, Pacific and Indigenous Studies).
- Paper Structure
ENGL 219 focuses on developing skills and critical thinking in the study of poetry and song, and the relationship between poetry and music. The course is not intended to give you comprehensive knowledge of a particular period, national literature or musical genre. Instead, it focuses on developing your understanding of the role of culturally and historically contingent conventions and their subversion in both poetry and song. We focus on three overlapping kinds of conventions:
- Conventions of form and genre (e.g. ballad form, 12-bar blues, haka), which shape the relationship between sound and meaning in poetry and song;
- Conventions of performance, which relate to the social roles and contexts of poetry and song;
- Media conventions, which govern the meaning and use of media technologies in poetry and song.
The course is, correspondingly, divided into three interrelated parts:
- Sound and Meaning: develops skills in identifying, describing and analysing the interplay between sound and meaning in poetry and song and the conventions that shape this interplay.
- Performance: enhances your ability to identify, describe and analyse the role of performance in poetry and song, including the social conventions through which performance serves as an expression of individual and collective identity.
- Technology and Media: enhances your skills in analysing the role of media technologies in poetry and song and the media conventions that poetry and song deploy and at times subvert.
- Teaching Arrangements
The paper involves a one-hour and a two-hour class each week, with the second hour of the two-hour class generally being devoted to tutorial-style discussion.
- Textbooks
All texts and sound recordings will be made available through Aoroa, eReserve and the library.
- Graduate Attributes Emphasised
- Global perspective, Interdisciplinary perspective, Lifelong learning, Scholarship, Communication, Critical thinking, Cultural understanding, Information literacy, Research, Self-motivation, Teamwork.
View more information about Otago's graduate attributes. - Learning Outcomes
On completion of this paper, you will be able to:
- Identify and describe common forms, techniques and performance-based aspects of poetry and song.
- Analyse the effect and significance of all these features in a given poem or song, relating them to the content of the work.
- Identify and describe some differences in the conventions and social roles of poetry and song and in the relationship between music and poetry, in various genres, from different cultures and historical periods and utilising a range of technologies.
- Critically reflect on your own assumptions about the conventions and social roles of poetry and song and on the assumptions of other cultures and historical periods.
- Present a coherent argument about a poem or song based on analysis of its content and form and on critical reflection of the assumptions about poetry and song that inform the work.
- Assessment details
- Tutorial Responses / Minute Papers (brief response papers to be completed in class each week): 20%
- Assignment (essay or creative work and commentary): 40%
- Final Examination: 40%