
Published online:
20 March 2014
Published in print:
19 December 2011
Online ISBN:
9781617031571
Print ISBN:
9781617031564
Contents
Chapter
Country Music Lyrics: Is There Poetry in Those Twangy Rhymes?
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Published:December 2011
Cite
Jones, Jill, 'Country Music Lyrics: Is There Poetry in Those Twangy Rhymes?', in Charlotte Pence (ed.), The Poetics of American Song Lyrics (Jackson, MS , 2011; online edn, Mississippi Scholarship Online, 20 Mar. 2014), https://doi.org/10.14325/mississippi/9781617031564.003.0008, accessed 28 Apr. 2025.
Abstract
Songs are often considered “lowbrow” whereas poetry is given the more glittery label “highbrow.” Country music might be viewed as the lowbrow of the lowbrow. This chapter explores the similarities between poetry and country lyrics by focusing on rhetorical tropes and schemes that both frequently utilize, including puns, alliteration, polyptoton, antithesis, and antimetabole. It argues that poetry and country songs have a shared literary and oral history.
Keywords:
poetry, country music, lyrics, puns, alliteration, polyptoton, antithesis, antimetabole, songs
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