Another quick lyrics question

[rayheinrich]

Interestingly enough,  most classic forms of poetry started out as song forms.
The French forms (villanelle, rondeau,  triplet, etc) are known as chansome forms
(songs) and sonnet means little song. A good poem should focus at least as much
on sound as a song and I would say more on sound than meaning.

Well butter my butt and call me a biscuit!

While I kinda know a bit of all that, I'd never put it together as you did above.
Of course! I've screwed the hierarchy up: Lyrics AREN'T a subset of poems.

A poem is a song.

The words of a poem are its lyrics.

I usually resist categorizing a piece of writing as prose or as poetry as it seems
a smooth continuum to me. But if, in the future, someone should ask:  I'll
now be able to bring them to their knees by shear force of intellect. (And while I'd
certainly neglect to credit you, you can take solace in the fact that God not only
knows, but will punish me for it as well -- I hope it's a good spanking, his golden
cane roughly caressing my vulnerable bottom... too much to expect?)