Music and Poems

Link to playlist: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/25ZPeQCfVUTTOyitYKB8Ec?si=o4HW3a-1Q6eQn97O1ouHNA&pi=u-pluqFeAWShWj

Leigh Rohe

Professor Nic Helms

Rethinking Modern British Lit

7 May 2024     

For my second unessay, I decided to make a playlist and compare each of the songs on it to one of three poems we examined the second half of the semester. My project will focus on After Death by Christina Rossetti, Bog Queen by Seamus Heaney, and The Second Coming by William Butler Yeats for poems, and the songs Sober to Death by Car Seat Headrest, In a Week by Hozier (Feat. Karen Crowley), and Bum by Kraus. I also included some honorable mentions in the playlist for some songs that almost made it, but I didn’t want to submit the project without.

For After Death by Christina Rossetti, I chose the song Sober to Death by Car Seat Headrest. I want to focus specifically on the chorus of this song, “Hold on to the ghost of my body, You know that good lives make bad stories, You can text me, When punching mattresses gets old,” (Car Seat Headrest, Lines 13-17). The part that really stands out to me from this little blurb is the concept of holding onto a ghost. After Death reads, in my opinion, as a desperate cry from someone who died young to be noticed in anyway shape or form. Whether it be negative or positive. This idea of just grappling to be noticed is very present throughout Sober to Death.

Bog Queen by Seamus Heaney made me think of a Hozier song and it’s the main reason I decided to do this project. If you add some sad guitar, Bog Queen is basically already a Hozier song. Bog Queen starts with the phrase “I lay waiting,” (Heaney, Line 1). This line reminds me of the phrase, “So long we become the flowers” (Hozier, Line 12), in Hozier’s song In a Week. Both pieces of art are about dead bodies, while they each talk about different aspects of the dead body, it carries the same general vibe. This vibe is making death feel like this beautiful thing. Both works describe rotting corpses, but yet you can take in the words without feeling grossed out. In a Week by Hozier leaves me with a feeling of great peace. While Bog Queen by Seamus Heaney makes me feel angry, and sad for the person the bog queen once was and for how her body was violated.

Lastly, we come to The Second Coming by William Butler Yeats. Even though this poem was one of the first ones we read this semester, I decided to include it in the project last. The song I chose for this poem was Bum by Kraus. Kraus is a shoegaze musician. Truthfully, I cannot understand a word he says in this song. Which is partly why I picked it, other than it being one of my favorite songs of all time. Bum is a confusing blend of guitars, drums, and something that sounds almost like an air raid siren. This air raid siren sounding guitar drives the song by being both the first and last thing the listener hears. It is also a very cyclical song, repeating itself over and over again. I wanted to pick a song that sounded cyclical because of the first line of this poem. This line of the poem produces a striking image of the ocean churning and opening up. The other reason I wanted a more repeating song was because of how the first three lines of the second stanza are formatted. Both “hand” and “the Second Coming” are repeated twice. All in all, the actual words of this song are the least important part, it is the feeling you get while listening and the instrumental that creates a connection to this poem.

To wrap this project up I am going to include a couple songs that I listened to or almost picked. The first being Zombie by The Cranberries. This is a very powerful song, I love this song so much. I ended up deciding against this song for any poem because I feel like this song itself is so strong and none of the poems we read this semester truly fit or would work. I could make this song fit into a lot of places for this project, but I feel like that would be a disservice to both the poems and the song. Next is, Till Forever Falls Apart by Ashe and FINNEAS. I stumbled upon this song while listening to songs for After Death by Christina Rossetti. It is very likable and focuses on the feeling of being with someone you love. It also has a lot of apocalyptic elements. I really feel like you could twist this song to fit for The Second Coming by William Butler Yeats, but I found a better fit. All in all, it’s too happy for any of the poems we read this semester. Lastly, we have the song Object by Ween. This song is about not really knowing the person you are with and just being in love with the idea of them. I was thinking about using this song when I was playing with the idea of the other perspective of After Death by Christina Rosetti.  Overall, I think this project gave me a new understanding and love for these poems.

Works Cited

Ashe. “Till Forever Falls Apart (Feat. FINNEAS).” Till Forever Falls Apart. Mom+Pop, 2021.

Car Seat Headrest. “Sober to Death.” Twin Fantasy. Matador Records, 2018.

Heaney, Seamus. “Bog Queen.”

Hozier, Andrew. “In a Week (Feat. Karen Crowley).” Hozier (Expanded Edition). Rubyworks, 2014.

Kraus, Will. “Bum.” Path. Terrible Records, 2018.

Rossetti, Christina. “After Death.”

The Cranberries. “Zombie.” No Need To Argue (The Complete Sessions 1994-1995). The Island Def Jam Music Group, 2002.

Ween. “Object.” La Cucaracha. Chocodog Records, 2007.

Yeats, William Butler. “The Second Coming.” The Collected Poems of W. B. Yeats, 1989.