Music and Poetry

Poetry has always held ties to music. The rhythm of a line of verse, the cadence of a word pronounced, the pleasing rhyme and pattern of similar sounds—for the writer, music exists in the very language we use. Beyond the musicality of words themselves, writers have also (and often) used music as the subject of their work.

For example, in his poem “Ellen West”, Frank Bidart writes of the opera singer Maria Callas. In his collection Jelly Roll, poet Kevin Young celebrates blues music. And in the poems of Jack Kerouac, one hears the jazz music of the 1960s echoing from the page. From cantatas to fugues to 12 bar blues, music has proven itself to be an ideal source of inspiration for poetry.

For our Music as Muse contest, COSA invites writers to submit a poem inspired by The Unanswered Question, a 1906 composition by Charles Ives. Celebrate the dynamic duo of poetry and music by listening to Ives' composition and writing an inspired poem of your own. Full guidelines are available on the COSA blog. Click here to hear The Unanswered Question.