The best poetry is BEAUTIFUL. And while it’s true that songs and poems do have lots in common, there aren’t many lyrics that you would mistake for poems. Here, though, are two songs that you absolutely could. Let’s use them as inspiration for our own poetry writing.

ACTIVITY 1
What do you think the song ‘Round Here’ is about? What has it got to do with growing up or teenage life? Read the lyrics, highlight key quotes and collect your initial ideas.
Noah Gundersen, ‘Round Here‘
(originally by Counting Crows)
Step out the front door like a ghost into the fog
Where no one notices the contrast of white on white
And in between the moon and you
The angels get a better view
Of the crumbling difference between wrong and right
Well, I walk in the air between the rain
Through myself and back again
Where? I don’t know
Maria says she’s dying
Through the door, I hear her crying
Why? I don’t know
‘Round here, we always stand up straight
‘Round here, something radiates
Maria came from Nashville with a suitcase in her hand
She said she’d like to meet a boy who looks like Elvis
And she walks along the edge
Of where the ocean meets the land
Just like she’s walking on a wire in the circus
She parks her car outside of my house
And takes her clothes off
Says she’s close to understanding Jesus
And she knows she’s more than just a little misunderstood
She has trouble acting normal when she’s nervous
‘Round here, we’re carving out our names
‘Round here, we all look the same
‘Round here, we talk just like lions
But we sacrifice like lambs
‘Round here, she’s slipping through my hands
Woah oh oh
Sleeping children better run like the wind
Out of the lightning dream
Mama’s little baby better get herself in
Out of the lightning
She says it’s only in my head
She says, shh, I know it’s only in my head
But the girl on the car in the parking lot
Says, Man, you should try to take a shot
Can’t you see my walls are crumbling?
Then she looks up at the building
Says she’s thinking of jumping
She says she’s tired of life
She must be tired of something
‘Round here, she’s always on my mind
‘Round here, hey man, got lots of time
‘Round here, we’re never sent to bed early
And nobody makes us wait
‘Round here, we stay up very, very, very, very late
I, I can’t see nothin’, nothin’ ’round here
You catch me if I’m fallin’, you catch me if I’m fallin’
Will you catch me? ‘Cause I’m fallin’ down on you
I said I’m under the gun, ’round here
I’m innocent, I’m under the gun, ’round here
And I can’t see nothin’, nothin’ ’round here
ACTIVITY 2
Read what songwriters, Counting Crows, said about the track in the two interviews below. Highlight anything that feels linked in some way to the process of growing up or the life or being a teenager.
Counting Crows said: “The first way Counting Crows ever sounded, it was me and Dave in bars and coffee houses playing open mics, doing this song this way. The song begins with a guy walking out the front door of his house, and leaving behind this woman. But the more he begins to leave people behind in his life, the more he feels like he’s leaving himself behind as well. The less and less substantial he feels like he’s becoming to himself. And that’s sorta what the song’s about because he feels that even as he disappears from the lives of people, he’s disappearing more and more from his own life. The chorus is, he sorta keeps screaming out these idioms these lessons that your mother might say to you when you were a kid, sorta child lessons ya know, “round here we always stand up straight”, “carving out our names”. Things that you are told when you are a kid that you do these things that.. that when you’re grown up it’ll add up to something, you’ll have a job, you’ll have a life. I think for me and the character of the song they don’t add up to anything, it’s just a bunch of crap kinda. Your life comes to you or doesn’t come to you, but those things don’t really mean anything. By the end of the song he’s so dismayed by this that he’s kinda screaming out that he can stay up as long as he wants and that no one makes him wait…the sort of things that are important if you are a kid. You know that you don’t have to go to bed, you don’t have to do anything. The sort of things that don’t make any difference at all when you’re an adult, they’re nothing. And uh and uh this is a song about, about me.”
Counting Crows also said: “We wrote this song in 1989 … We were all in bands and we had shitty jobs. We would wash dishes, work in record stores and wash windows and … by day, so that we can be in a rock and roll band at night. You know? And it was after college and our friends are getting on with their lives. And they had good jobs, well… boring jobs… but they made more money than we did, and they had futures and we didn’t. And there comes a point in the life of everyone in a rock and roll band that you have to sort of decide, am I going to do this with my life, or am I going to go get one of those other jobs? Because I can’t deal with washing dishes anymore and I can’t dig any more holes, and I can’t wash another window. And there is those that go, and there is those that stay. And you walk out on the edge of the world and you balance yourself there for a while and you try to figure out just which one you’re gonna be. And a lot of our friends are doing other things right now. And we’re standing right up here on this stage.”
ACTIVITY 3
What do you think the song ‘American Teenager’ is about? What has it got to do with growing up or teenage life? Read the lyrics, highlight key quotes and collect your initial ideas.
Ethel Cain, ‘American Teenager‘
Grew up under yellow light on the street
Putting too much faith in the make-believe
Another high-school football team
Ah, ah-ah-ah
The neighbor’s brother came home in a box
But he wanted to go, so maybe it was his fault
Another red heart taken by the American dream
And I feel you there
In the middle of the night
When the lights go out
And I’m all alone again
Say what you want, but say it like you mean it
With your fists for once, a long cold war
With your kids at the front
Just give it one more day then you’re done
I do what I want, crying in the bleachers
And I said it was fun
I don’t need anything from anyone
It’s just not my year, but I’m all good out here
Sunday morning
Hands over my knees in a room full of faces
I’m sorry if I seemed off, but I was probably wasted (wasted)
And didn’t feel so good (didn’t feel so good)
A life full of whiskey but I always deliver
Jesus, if You’re listening, let me handle my liquor
And Jesus, if You’re there
Why do I feel alone in this room with You?
And I feel you there
In the middle of the night
When the lights go out
But I’m still standing here
Say what you want, but say it like you mean it
With your fists for once, a long cold war
With your kids at the front
Just give it one more day then you’re done, done
I do what I want, crying in the bleachers
And I said it was fun
I don’t need anything from anyone
It’s just not my year, but I’m all good out here
Say what you want, but say it like you mean it
With your fists for once, a long cold war
With your kids at the front
Just give it one more day then you’re done
I do it for my daddy and I do it for Dale
I’m doing what I want and, damn, I’m doing it well
For me, for me
For me, for me, yeah
ACTIVITY 4
Read what Ethel Cain (and others) said about the track below. Highlight anything that feels linked in some way to the process of growing up or the life or being a teenager.
We’re told that: “The third and final single from Ethel Cain’s debut album, Preacher’s Daughter. Ethel (aka Hayden Anhedonia) said of the song in a statement with Pitchfork: “Growing up I was surrounded by visions of NASCAR, rock’n’roll, and being the one who would change everything,” Cain said in a statement. “They make you think it’s all achievable and that if nothing else, you should at least die trying. What they don’t tell you is that you need your neighbor more than your country needs you. I wrote this song as an expression of my frustration with all the things the ‘American Teenager’ is supposed to be but never had any real chance of becoming.”
ACTIVITY 5
Write a poem about growing up or the teenage experience. Aim to use some of the poetic techniques explored in ‘Round Here’ and ‘American Teenager’. You could start by brainstorming ideas for your poem and motifs that might suit the theme. Then, explore some other poetry lessons and have a go at any of the tasks that feel useful in advance of writing your final piece:
ACTIVITY 6
Write an essay in response to this task:
Explore the ways in which the two writers explored above present ideas about growing up/teenage existence.
You might want to think about things such as: the light being outside instead of inside; the conflict of religion and reality; the symbolic value of American football team…