ABSTRACT
Nowadays, if we use the term ‘lyric’ we usually mean the words of a song. Most dictionary definitions describe lyric in two ways: as denoting a short poem expressing the poet’s own thoughts and feelings, or a composition that is meant to be sung. The notion of the lyric poet or the singer-songwriter sharing her or his deepest, most private sentiments has become predominant in modern culture. There are certain consistent features in definitions of lyric: it is characterised by brevity, deploys a first-person speaker or persona, involves performance, and is an outlet for personal emotion. Yet these definitions highlight a series of unresolved questions that have shaped the theory, practice and interpretation of lyric for many centuries. Is lyric about display and public entertainment; is it something that can be shared or is it a matter of private experience; is it something for others, or just for oneself? The first definition stresses the subjective nature of the lyric
form, in that it is a concentrated expression of individual emotion, while the second stresses its intersubjective character through its relation to music and public performance. The first meaning reflects a theory that developed in the later eighteenth century, which defined lyric in terms of heightened emotion and
authentic sentiment, and presented it as a (usually brief) moment of intensified awareness. M. H. Abrams summarises this view: ‘lyric is any fairly short poem, consisting of the utterance by a single speaker, who expresses a state of mind or a process of perception, thought, and feeling’ (Abrams 1993: 108-9). This speaker can muse in solitude or, as in dramatic lyric, address another presence in a particular situation. As we shall see, however, the lyric persona is not to be confused with the poet her-or himself: the emphasis on the author’s sincerity and authenticity has been profoundly questioned by literary and critical theory in recent decades. (This demystification of the figure of the autonomous artist owes a debt to earlier conceptions of lyric, as subsequent chapters demonstrate.) Whether the ‘I’ speaks alone or to others, expresses emotion directly or adopts an elaborate disguise, lyric is fundamentally concerned with the conditions and nature of address. The connection with music acknowledges the etymological
origins of lyric: the term derives from the Greek lurikos (‘for the lyre’), where verses would be sung or recited to the accompaniment of a lyre. In its earliest form, then, lyric involved some form of appeal or address to others. This implies a very different aesthetic experience from that associated with the isolated individual, who speaks or sings alone. Although the link between poetry and music has gradually diminished since the Renaissance, the relationship between words and performance has remained central to the understanding of lyric. In keeping with its origins, this book sees lyric as a performance, and will pay close attention to the voices and structures of address that are heard or invoked in lyric texts.
