Lyric Cousins : Edinburgh University Press : 9781474402927 : 1474402925 : 19 Oct 2016 : Leading poet, critic and former musician explores the 'deep forms' common to both poetry and music Today, poetry and art music occupy similar cultural positions: each has a tendency to be regarded as problematic, ?difficult' and therefore ?elitist'. Despite this, the audiences and numbers of participants for each are substantial: yet they tend not to overlap. This is odd, because the forms share early history in song and saga, and have some striking similarities, often summed up in the word 'lyric'. These similarities include much that is most significant to the experience of each, and so of most interest to practitioners and audiences. They encompass, at the very least: the way each art-form is aural, and takes place in time; a shared reliance on temporal, rather than spatial, forms; an engagement with sensory experience and pleasure; availability for both shared public performance and private r