Have you ever?

[youngthrasher9]

Have you ever delved into reading classic literature like the works Edgar Allan Poe, or Dante specifically to help broaden your lyrical your imagination and depth? It seems like for some genres it could only help. Not making direct references in your lyrics, but maybe some writing accents that these classics are known for could be highly useful as influences if they inspire and fascinate you.

[DankStar]

Yes. More from poetry though - Corinna's Going a Maying by Robert Herrick. It inspired a whole song of love and desire, and to seize the moment. I wish to recapture that type of inspiration.

[crusty philtrum]

No. I read Poe because I liked what he had to say, the stories he had to tell.

I find many times that I can't finish a book or watch a complete show on tv because one little element can set my mind off on it's own journey and so i lose concentration on the book/tv show or whatever. To stay with something from someone else's imagination, i have to limit my own to try to focus on theirs.

I even have trouble listening to other people because my mind is always working on something or taking flight somewhere while they're speaking. My vocabulary is good enough, but even if it was great, it wouldn't help me articulate what's in my mind. Music is the closest i can come to capturing some of that. I've always written lyrics since i was a teenager, and rarely about the usual stuff people write about. I'm probably more concerned about my lyrics than i am about my playing.

So i don't look to other sources to inspire me, I look to them to see what someone else is about. They have their direction, i have mine. I may be blessed to have the imagination i have, and i have always been grateful for it. Without it, i'd probably just be a composite of bits and pieces of other people's ideas, and i would be reduced to 'collector/arranger'.

But that's just me. And the dog. And the big rabbit.

[DrNewcenstein]

I'm with Crusty. I get started on someone else's basic premise and end up following a branch that my mind detects, then I'm off to the races with that. Though mine is more music-oriented than lyric-based.
I can't write lyrics from scratch worth a flip, but I can collaborate with someone who already has a basis.

[stratobastard]

Old english lit.

y

Jorge Luis Borges
Has inspired my writing tremendously

[exnihilo]

Bob Dylan.

cg

[hareek]

Yes but mainly because I enjoy the poetry and literature, not so much for expanding my writing and vocabulary. I was probably the only person in my high school English classes that enjoyed and appreciated when we read Shakespeare. I get that it's not for everyone, but if it is for you it's quite beautiful.

[Jay 77]

I'm no writer, but in some way or another have found inspiration from the Divine Comedy, Paradise Lost, and some other works. Lovecraft (although not classic literature) paints vivid pictures in the mind.

[ImmortalSix]

Jorge Luis Borges
Has inspired my writing tremendously

Love Borges --- started with "Garden of The Forking Paths" in college, and bought a translated anthology and read every word.

Good stuff.

I like his writing because it's an example of how you really can create something new - even if only in your mind - unconstrained by society, and in some cases, time.

I believe that reading work like his truly can expand your mind.

[SlyFoxx]

I find Dr. Seuss provides lots of inspiration.

[Inkstained]

Have you ever.

No, never.

[TheLivingDead]

I get that with crappy old horror and sci-fi B-flicks of the 50's.

[stratobastard]

Loved a woman

[innerdreamrecords.co]

I was all about MAD magazine.

[idsnowdog]

The mark of a good lyricist is the ability to create lyrics that tell an interesting story or to speak to common experiences. The trap that most lyricists fall into is they sing in the key of ME. Too many lyricists are wrapped up in their own world and that makes them boring and predictable.

[Hellion]

I'm a HUGE fan of Poe, as well as Nathaniel Hawthorne, Samuel Clements, Cervantes, Shakespeare, etc, though I'll admit that I had some trouble with Dante's "Divina Comedia". It kinda ranked up there with Milton's "Paradise Lost". Just boring reading.

[Ashurbanipal]

Avoid the Bronte's though, boring as hell.

Sacrilege!

Well, I'd agree that Charlotte was a bit of a one hit wonder with Jane Eyre; her subsequent novels don't really stack up.

Trouble is that they all died so young and thus, arguably, didn't realize their full potential.

Fwiw, my sig is an excerpt from a poem by Emily.

[ItsaBass]

I don't know about "classic literature," but I've wanted to write an album based on the Foundation Trilogy ever since I was a kid. I am terrible with lyrics, though. The music I could handle.

[uOpt]

Have you ever delved into reading classic literature like the works Edgar Allan Poe, or Dante specifically to help broaden your lyrical your imagination and depth? It seems like for some genres it could only help. Not making direct references in your lyrics, but maybe some writing accents that these classics are known for could be highly useful as influences if they inspire and fascinate you.

I didn't do it that deliberately to cause this effect.

But yes I am sure that there is a self-acceleration going on here, that people who like to read fantasy broaden the range of things they can imagine and that that translates to finding more creative solutions in real life. The problem of course is that one group of people gets into a feedback loop over this while another does nothing, where it would be more valuable that those without any imagination would broaden it just a little bit. [/end summary of society]