The best song lyrics for World Poetry Day

21 March 2025, 11:24

Let's dip into the lyric book to rifle through some of the greatest quotes in music.

When song lyrics are done properly, they can be like beautiful poetry. Here are some of our favourite examples.

By Radio X

@RadioX

1. "You used to get it in your fishnets / Now you only get it in your night dress / Discarded all the naughty nights for niceness / Landed in a very common crisis."

   Arctic Monkeys - Fluorescent Adolescent (2007)

   

   Arctic Monkeys - Fluorescent Adolescent (Official Video)

2. "Libraries gave us power / Then work came and made us free / What price now for a shallow piece of dignity?"

   Manic Street Preachers - A Design For Life (1996)

   

   Manic Street Preachers - A Design For Life

3. “Give me a Leonard Cohen afterworld / So I can sigh eternally.”

   Nirvana - Pennyroyal Tea (1993)

   

   Nirvana - Pennyroyal Tea (Live On MTV Unplugged, 1993 / Unedited)

4. "Punctured bicycle... on a hillside desolate / Will nature make a man of me yet?"

   The Smiths - This Charming Man (1983)

   

   The Smiths - This Charming Man (Official Music Video)

5. "A falling star fell from your heart and landed in my eyes / I screamed aloud, as it tore through them, and now it's left me blind."

   Florence + The Machine - Cosmic Love (2009)

   

   Florence + The Machine - Cosmic Love

6. "Jealousy, turning saints into the sea / Swimming through sick lullabies / Choking on your alibis"

   The Killers - Mr Brightside (2003)

   

   The Killers - Mr. Brightside

7. "Rows of houses, all bearing down on me / I can feel their blue hands touching me."

   Radiohead - Street Spirit (Fade Out) (1995)

   

   Radiohead - Street Spirit (Fade Out)

8. "I'll be the corpse in your bathtub / Useless / I'll be as deaf as a post / If you hold me like a newborn / Whisper what you feel / My badly strung declaration / To you."

   Elbow - Newborn (2001)

   

   Elbow - newborn

9. "And into the sea / Goes pretty England and me / Around the bay of Biscay / And back for tea / Hit traffic on the Dogger bank / Up the Thames to find a taxi rank / Sail on by with the tide / And go to sleep."

   Blur - This Is A Low (1994)

   

   Blur - This is a Low - Parklife

10. "Time on your side it'll never end / The most beautiful thing you can ever spend / But you work in a shirt with your name tag on it / Drifting apart like a plate tectonic."

    Kaiser Chiefs - Oh My God (2004)

    

    Kaiser Chiefs - Oh My God

11. “With these meaningless conversations / Well I’ll tell you they test my patience / And maybe we could be friends.”

    Wolf Alice - Beautifully Unconventional (2016)

    

    Wolf Alice - Beautifully Unconventional

12. "All this talk of getting old / It's getting me down my love / Like a cat in a bag, waiting to drown / This time I'm comin' down."

    The Verve - The Drugs Don't Work (1997)

    

    The Verve - The Drugs Don't Work

13. "It's on America's tortured brow / That Mickey Mouse has grown up a cow / Now the workers have struck for fame / 'Cause Lennon's on sale again."

    David Bowie - Life On Mars? (1971)

    

    David Bowie – Life On Mars? (Official Video)

14. "You spent the evening unpacking books from boxes / You passed me up so as not to break a promise / Scattered Polaroids and sprinkled words around your collar / In the long run, you said you knew that this would happen."

    Maxïmo Park - Books From Boxes (2007)

    

    Maximo Park - Books from Boxes

15. "So I'll start a revolution from my bed / Cause you said the brains I had went to my head / Step outside, summertime's in bloom / Stand up beside the fireplace / Take that look from off your face / You ain't ever gonna burn my heart out."

    Oasis - Don't Look Back In Anger (1995)

    

    Oasis - Don’t Look Back In Anger

16. "She tried to peel me off the pavement / Tried to insinuate sometimes / I am in danger of going too far / Asked me would I like to go for tea and toast."

    Courteeners - Not Nineteen Forever (2007)

    

    The Courteeners - Not Nineteen Forever

17. "An ending fitting for the start / You twist and tore our love apart / Your light fingers threw the dark / That shattered the lamp and into darkness it cast us."

    The Libertines - Can't Stand Me Now (2004)

    

    The Libertines - Can't Stand Me Now (Official Video)

18. When routine bites hard and ambitions are low / And resentment rides high but emotions won't grow / And we're changing our ways, taking different roads / Then love, love will tear us apart again."

    Joy Division - Love Will Tear Us Apart (1980)

    

    Joy Division - Love Will Tear Us Apart [OFFICIAL MUSIC VIDEO]

19. "And in the end / The love you take / Is equal to the love you make"

    The Beatles - The End (1969)

    

    The End (Remastered 2009)

20. “I don’t have to sell my soul / He’s already in me.”

    The Stone Roses - I Wanna Be Adored (1989)

    

    The Stone Roses - I Wanna Be Adored (Official Video)