Stanza Examples in Contemporary Music: Are They Worth Studying?
In poetry, verses that are organized in a unit are called stanzas. The concept also applies to music-writing. In fact, most contemporary lyrics offer a ton of stanza examples students can use to study from. There’s just one problem… few English teachers are interested in using today’s songs as a source for ‘legitimate’ stanza examples. They feel that if students are to learn about stanzas or other types of poetry, they must analyze the works of literary greats. There is one exception… LouAnne Johnson. She had been assigned to teach English to troubled youths. But when she realized they weren’t interested in studying classic literature, she decided she would spice things up and introduce the lyrics of Bob Dylan into the curriculum. Later, she asked her students to compare the lyrics to the poems of Dylan Thomas, a renowned figure in the literary world. They loved the exercise and became even more appreciative of English.
