Although “The Iliad” and Psalms were sung to the lyre, music and poetry are now separate in the minds of most literary arbiters. Yet the critic Christopher Ricks contends that Bob Dylan’s fine, surprising language establishes him as a poet, whatever his medium. Leonard Cohen, accepting the Prince of Asturias Award for Literature in October, clarified, “Poetry comes from a place that no one commands.”
— “The Secret Chord”, a micro-article by Maud Newton in “The One-Page Magazine” version of the New York Times magazine, December 2, 2011 (Hat tip to alumna Caitlin Outterson for spotting this)
