A collection of Lana Del Rey’s favourite poetry
“I love you, but you don’t understand me, I’m a real poet! My life is my poetry, my love making is my legacy!” Lana Del Rey declares in her poem ‘Salamander’.
Del Rey’s lyricism has always been rich with literary references. Regularly borrowing lines from novels, addressing her favourite others by name or weaving together a web of all her musicians, actors and icons, the world of her music is a treasure trove of influences.
Poetry especially plays a major role in Del Rey’s life and career. In 2020, the singer and writer released her own book, Violet Bent Backwards Over The Grass. A beautiful collection containing poems on the topics of love, family, fame and beyond, the book was accompanied by a spoken word album.
Beyond her own writing, her albums are packed with poetry. Dedicating whole tracks to reciting her favourite poems or referencing her favourite writers in her lyrics, Del Rey is clearly an avid reader.
With tastes that range from modernism to confessional works, from the beat generation to classic British writers, her pool of reference is broad. Having previously shared some of her favourite novels, they include Lolita, self-help book The Master Key and Kenneth Anger’s gossip bible Hollywood Babylon.
But when it comes to poetry, Del Rey had some stand-out favourites.
Lana Del Rey’s favourite poetry:
‘Burnt Norton’ by T. S. Eliot
On her fourth studio album, Honeymoon, in 2015, Del Rey dedicated an entire interlude to a poem by British modernist writer T. S. Eliot. A key figure in the reinvigoration of British poetry in the early 20th century, Eliot and his peers helped move the form away from stuffy, traditional forms.
‘Burnt Norton’ is based on Eliot’s best-known epic poem, ‘The Wasteland’, and uses the same rolling structure. Dealing with time, regret and memory, the poem is a haunting piece that Del Rey clearly connected with deeply. Speaking the poem over a hazy instrumental interlude, it sits as a perfect midpoint to her record, showing just how tightly connected her music and poetry are.
‘Ariel’ by Sylvia Plath
Sylvia Plath gets a shout-out by name on Del Rey’s 2019 album Norman Fucking Rockwell. On what is perhaps one of her most devastating tracks, ‘hope is a dangerous thing for a woman like me to have – but I have it’, Del Rey sings, “I’ve been tearing around in my fucking nightgown / 24/7 Sylvia Plath / Writing in blood on the walls /’Cause the ink in my pen doesn’t work in my notepad.”
Originally called ‘Sylvia Plath’, the track deals with depression in the same deeply personal way that Plath’s own poetry does. A reference she regularly brings up in her work, Del Rey also addresses Plath in her poem ‘Bare Feet On Linoleum’, which begins, “Stay on your path Sylvia Plath / don’t fall away like all the others.” Picking out The Bell Jar as one of her favourite novels, Plath’s most famous poetry collection, Ariel, is also of incredible importance to the singer.
‘I Sing The Body Electric’ by Walt Whitman
When it came to the release of her debut album, Born To Die, way back in 2012, Lana Del Rey already had a rich literary and lyrical world. One the one album alone, there are lyrics referencing Vladimir Nabokov’s Lolita, Oscar Wilde’s Intentions, Tennesee Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire and more. But poetry comes through clearest on the track, ‘Body Electric’.
Pulling lyrics directly from the Walt Whitman poem, Del Rey quite literally sings, “I sing the body electric.” Dubbed the “father of free verse”, Whitman’s influence on the singer is impossible to understate as she so regularly connects to the way the poet merged deep sentiment with carefree delivery.
Along with the release of her debut album, Del Rey made an extended music video film called Tropico, showing her vibrant cinematic world. Surrounded by her three biggest inspirations, Marilyn Monroe, Elvis Presley and God, Del Rey sings ‘Body Electric’ as an ode to her other idol, Whitman.
‘Howl’ by Allen Ginsberg
Allen Ginsberg is one of the most influential poets in history. A pioneering force in the 1960s beat generation, which inspired not only poets but a whole new generation of musicians, Lana Del Rey counts herself within that crowd.
In her film Tropico, Del Rey recites Howl, reading the famous line, “I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness,” along with the whole beat poem.
Talking to The Fadar about ‘Howl’, Del Rey said: “I found this poem when I was 15, and it was one of the first pieces of literature that ever resonated with me.” An extended poem about the dark corners of the 1960s’ counterculture movement, the poem felt prophetic to the singer, who added, “The fact that I related so closely to Ginsberg’s manic, drug-fueled rantings was a sign of very dark but creative times to come.”
