Natalie Merchant sings poetry. But does that make it new and improved?

Natalie Merchant on Tuesday releases the album "Leave Your Sleep," 26 poems set to music. She's been working on the project for six years and will bring it to Los Angeles on April 20. She previewed the tracks in a polished performance at the TED conference in February.

After the first song, names and photos of the poets flashed on the screen: Charles E. Carryl, Rachel Field, Robert Graves, Christina Rossetti, Robert Louis Stevenson, Ogden Nash, Edward Lear. "Ghosts, right? Have nothing to say to us. Obsolete. Gone," Merchant said. But she wasn't finished. "Not so."

She sees her project as a resurrection. "What I've really enjoyed about this project is reviving these people's words, taking them off the dead flat pages, bringing them to life," she said.

From one perspective, this is admirable. Who remembers Nathalia Crane, or her the 1927 book that her poem "The Janitor's Boy" came from? Maybe now, with Merchant's swinging bluesy tune of it, someone will look it up.

But. 

What poet sees his or her work as being written for "dead flat pages"? Most poems are written for the page, and many poems use the page layout as part of their expression. That would include the work of e.e. cummings, one of the poets whose work Merchant has set to music.

Seems to me that poems set to music are a nice novelty, but that doesn't make them new and improved. It transmutes them as lyrics, but it would be a mistake to think this improves on their original form.

As for resurrection, the work of the better-known writers in Merchant's collection is still very much alive. Stevenson's "Kidnapped" is at the center of a talk Thursday at the Library of Congress by A. Roger Ekirch, author of the new book "Birthright: The True Story That Inspired 'Kidnapped.' " And Britain's former poet laureate Sir Andrew Motion has announced he will write a sequel to Stevenson's classic "Treasure Island."

Flat pages? Sure. Dead pages? Maybe not.

-- Carolyn Kellogg

Comments

[Joop from Holland]

Impressive performance and well sounding songs, looking forward in seeing her on May 11th in Amsterdam Paradiso.

Love from Holland Joop.

[JennieC]

Oh, get over it. I appreciate your perspective on poetry - and poets, but how many folks have access to the Library of Congress, or even cable, for that matter. Great literature is hardly found otherwise on broadcast media. And for many people, poetry IS simply words on dull, flat pages.

Maybe Merchant's new music will awaken new interest in this wonderful art that's poetry.

[Al Reyes]

yes, but the poems or is it nursery rhymes come alive in rhythm, what a wonderful way to introduce children to long lost written words?

[HoldUp]

Oh Get Over It is exactly right. Merchant poured her heart and soul into these poems, as she does with her own work, and indeed DOES offer them NEW life. What a great honor. Geez, she should not have even bothered?

[shelley]

You missed the point, I think. I don't think Nathalie was trying to make old poems "new and improved," but just lending a new perspective to and existing art form. Did you ask her?

[Sabrina]

I think anyone who makes an effort to bring poetry to people should be given credit, not viewed cynically. As for access to the Library of Congress, all it takes it one mouse click...at a public library or even at home.

[Melanie]

Poetry was originally written to be set to music. While these poems may not have been specifically intended for such a purpose, by doing so Natalie Merchant is certainly given a proper homage to the art form.

I feel like this review takes far too much of a rhetorical approach to Merchant's words. For example the "dead flat page" point is overly analytical and off base. Of course Merchant didn't mean that these poems were "meant" to be put on dead flat pages. Instead they have become that way do to our contemporary lack of interest in poetry. Overall, we fail to appreciate the art form and she is attempting to revive it. Good for her. As a graduate student studying English literature I can say I really appreciate her efforts.

[JohnW]

What a bunch of hogwash. From what I've on on the radio, she's done a wonderful job and I will buy it for my kids. In fact it's all good...except for your dribble.

[Mary Mervis]

Natalie and I are within a year apart, age wise....I loved her in 10,000 maniacs...grew up with her music in my 20's...

Now as a mother of 4, ages 6-18, having just watched the first part of this video, I have to say, I thought it was kind of (a lot?) creepy....geeze, "Little boys do not like to be chewed." Is that a lullaby?? Also, the mask is really pretty scary too, IMO!

I was an art major, so appreciate being eccentric. But...will have to listen a bit more I guess.

I've always respected Natalie's integrity as an artist. But at the same time, wish she'd perhaps find a way to show a lighter side to life once in a while!

Just my 2 cents. And congrats on her being a mom!

[Adam]

I don't think Ms. Merchant was saying that poetry is inherently from "dead, flat pages."

But you have to admit this isn't exacly an album of Shel Silverstein and Billy Collins. It is a ressurection of these particular works, because it will expose hundreds of thousands (millions?) to them that never would have seen them on the "flat, dead page."

[Joan Broderick]

I love this album. Following the words and listening to the music opened my eyes as to how talented this lady is. Fun songs for all ages and she should
now hit Broadway with it. Joan Broderick, Maryland, USA

[Melissa Fair]

I don't think she was necessarily trying to reinvent the wheel. She took six years to make this album, which is a concept album. There are few artists left, musically, and she is one of them. Poetry was originally a largely oral tradition - please don't tell me about Inanna. I love poetry and write it myself. And read it. Your reaction is more befitting a review of a poetry BOOK by Jewel. I feel Natalie Merchant just decided to do something different. By the way, the poetry reading audience in the U.S. is already marginal - so, I'm happy that people will be listening to poetry who may not ever have done it under any other circumstances. The goal of most poets these days seems to be to alienate the reader as much as possible. The more incomprehensible you are, the more genius you must possess...or at least that's what seems to be the current line. Personally, I think there's either a quid pro quo system (among universities, professors and presses) run amok OR a reviewer is inclined to say something is genius before they will admit they don't get it. Maybe someone will enjoy one of the pieces, and then actually go look up the poet for more work. IF this album were awful and predictable and trite, I might echo a sentiment of yours, or two. But she was thoughtful and meticulous in the creation of this album. So, I see a win-win. It's okay to be academic, to a point. But to continue to make poetry an elitist hobby - because only a few make a living strictly as a poet, and a very small percentage of the population read poetry (by choice) that isn't in a greeting card - is to start the slow procession to the grave for poetry in America. By the way, the pages are dead if no one's reading them. I'm a fan of the written word and a good book of poetry. But in these days, I'll be happy however poetry is delivered to a largely unexpecting audience. But be real...it's not like Britney Spears did this. It's NM. So it won't be remixed and on the radio or at the club. And largely, maybe the same kind of person that buys a Natalie Merchant album already reads poetry.

[Melissa Fair]

For the commenter who questioned the 'lullaby'....most lullabies, at least traditional ones, are not nice if you really listen. the same way fairy tales are not. full of cannibalism, incest, violence, murder....

[Steven Breyak]

"The dead, flat page." So these words were no longer alive until set to music? I'm beginning to think that Bill Knott is right: musicians are the greatest narcissists of the art world.

[G. Mills]

I'm surprised the author latched on to some isolated comment, while ignoring its context, let alone the years of work and the finished product itself. Introducing people to poetry is admirable. Period. No buts. Having an elitist attitude about the artform is off-putting and detrimental to its longevity.

[Mike]

Carolyn's view is purist, and elitist. When Natalie Merchant says that she is "reviving these people's words, taking them off the dead flat pages, bringing them to life", oh you can bet those words can fire up SOME purists like Ms. Kellogg. This article asks: 'Revive' other people's poetry? Really?

Natalie's renditons of these poems are not bad. Nice. I like her, her life's work. I like listening to her music. But Natalie is not reviving anything to these poems. And I'm with Carolyn.

Dead, flat pages?

Natalie is speaking about what she has done. What she thinks is revival is suffocation to me, death to those poems. Leave the musical instruments out, leave the Natalie Merchant voice out. The poetry is music enough.

[Dave]

new and improved? maybe, maybe not. but who claimed it is new and IMPROVED? how 'bout new and DIFFERENT?

[Melissa Fair]

I would like to add one more thing...the reviewer, and a few of the commenters, seem to live in a very special world. A world where the rule, rather than the exception, has been that exceptional poetry abounds. Truthfully, poetry has been mfa'd to death. All these programs have done is create more 'poets'. Trust me. I hear them read their work and it is, for the large part, not too good. To act as though Natalie Merchant will bring about the dumbing down of poetry in America is pretty radical. Poets and the development of mfa programs (teaching you how to be a poet by isolating you from the world you're writing about for years so that all of your poems are so far inside your own reality no one will ever have a door into them unless they ARE you?) have pretty much done the work already. Poetry has been in jeapordy for quite some time in America. When people are starving and times are tough, we give them rice to get them through. Not steaks and fine cabernets. So, Poetry is starving for America. Or Americans are starving for poetry(though they don't know it!). So, let's get the lifeline out to keep it alive rather than go extinct save for the poetical version of the Smithsonian. Then, we can refine America's palate. Poets, MFA programs and language poetry have done the job you wish to blame on Ms. Merchant. But I know, to admit that, is difficult. Because it squarely places most of us as cogs in that wheel...yes, even you, too, unhumble reviewer..who continues to promote elitism and incomprehension as the lifeline for poetry, or the watermark for genius. I'll light a candle for Carl Sandburg and his kind tonight...I'm sure he would find the state of american poetry (as you desire it and as it largely is) abhorrent.

[Isa Des Osiers]

Carolyn Kellogg's "review" seems quite shallow and I wonder if she actually listened to the deep throaty earthiness of former 10, 000 Maniacs lead singer, Nathalie Merchant as she sings the rich metaphorical language of these somewhat forgotten poets, resuscitating their oeuvre for a public unfamiliar with their work. I was listening to Oregon Public Radio tonight and heard this haunting voice and lyric. I immediately looked her up and then came across this rather disappointing treatment of Merchant's latest, after first listening to an April 26, 2010 interview about the album. It was not intended for children, but rather, it was a study of the state of childhood through these poems set to music. Alas, it seems over the head of Ms. Kellogg and many of the bloggers to that article. Seems this fellow poet and artist, Melissa Fair gets it right. I am buying the album for my 18 year daughter, a becoming artiste graphique in Lausanne, Switzerland. A big admirer of Carla Bruni's songs, I think she will love it. And I imagine the European part of the tour will be a great success. I hope so for her, and I toast Nathalie Merchant's career, remembering her performances in small clubs in San Francisco in the '80's, and seeing how much she has grown.

[Mike]

In the article above, Natalie Said this: "What I've really enjoyed about this project is reviving these people's words, taking them off the dead flat pages, bringing them to life."

Humble words, beautiful. But questionable.

This statement is central to Ms. Kellogg's opinions. Ms. Kellogg understands Merchant's aims. But what I feel very critical about is the word 'REVIVING' in Merchant's statement.

Yes, I'm sure, to many people, she is 'reviving' something to these poems, but not to me, Ms. Kellog and others.

Merchant is not REVIVING anything to these poems, because there is nothing to REVIVE in these poems. Because these poems are not DEAD! They do not need the help of Merchant's voice, because these poems have a voice of their own. These poems are fully alive, because they exist! The pages they are in are not "dead flat pages".

And set to music? The poems are already music.

I further agree with Ms. Kellogg that "most poems are written for the page, and many poems use the page layout as part of their expression."

If Merchant had said or suggested that what she is doing is a performative reading of existing texts, yes, I do not have a problem with that. But to refer to these poems as works coming from "dead flat pages" is insulting to the existing work.