Edgar Allan Poe on Song-writing

“THERE are few cases in which mere popularity shoud be considered a proper test of merit; but the case of song-writing is, I think, one of the few. In speaking of song-writing, I mean, of course, the composition of brief poems with an eye to their adaptation for music in the vulgar sense. In this ultimate destination of the song proper, lies its essence – its genius. It is the strict reference to music – it is the dependence upon modulated expression – which gives to this branch of letters a character altogether unique, and separates it, in great mesure and in a manner not sufficiently considered, from ordinary literature; rendering it independent of merely ordinary proprieties; allowing it, in fact demanding for it, a wide latitude of Law; absolutely, insisting upon a certain wild licence and indefinitiveness – an indefinitiveness recognized by every musician who is not a mere fiddler, as an important point in the philosophy of his science – as the soul, indeed, of the sensations derivable from its practice – sensations which bewilder while they enthral – and which would not so enthral if they did not bewilder.” …