Wikipedia:Lyrics and poetry

This is an explanatory essay about Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Music. This page provides additional information about concepts in the page(s) it supplements. This page is not one of Wikipedia's policies or guidelines as it has not been thoroughly vetted by the community.

Shortcut WP:LYRICS

Explanatory essay about Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Music

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A Wikipedia article on lyrics or poetry should have an analytical framework that describes the song and its cultural impact. This page discusses how they should be written. For how lyrics and poetry should be displayed, see: Wikipedia:WikiProject Poetry#Style for quoting from poems.

Foremost,

• Most modern songwriters and poets have not released their works under an
  violates their copyright
  . Copyright usually expires 70 years after the author's death (see below).
• External links to copyright violations should also be avoided. Many archives and collections of lyrics on the Internet are not licensed and are likely to involve copyright violations.
• In addition to the main point of not violating copyright, do not write an article that consists only of lyrics. This would be considered a
  speedy deleted
  by an admin for lack of context.

Copyrighted works

• W. B. Yeats (includes block quotes from several poems)
• "A Day in the Life" by the Beatles (includes selected lyrics inline)
• "The Scientist" by Coldplay (includes selected lyrics inline and audio excerpt)
• "Love Story" by Taylor Swift (includes selected lyrics inline and audio excerpt)
• "Like a Rolling Stone" by Bob Dylan (includes selected lyrics in block quotes and audio excerpts)
• "Running to Stand Still" by U2 (includes selected lyrics inline and in blocks, and an audio excerpt)
• "Last Post" poem by Carol Ann Duffy (includes selected lyrics inline and in blocks)
• "Hey Ya!" by OutKast (includes inline discussion of selected lyrics)

Copyright-expired works

Generally, these expire in all countries (except Colombia, Guatemala, Mexico, and Samoa) when all of the following conditions are satisfied:

• The work was created and first published before January 1, 1923, or at least 95 years before January 1 of the current year, whichever is later.
• The last surviving author died at least 70 years before January 1 of the current year.
• No
  Berne Convention
  signatory has passed a perpetual copyright on the work.

Consider the following:

• "Old Dan Tucker" (featured)
• "Three Blind Mice"
• "And did those feet in ancient time"

National anthems

National anthems are generally considered to be a special case of fair use if modern, or copyright-expired if older. Examples include:

• "God Save the King" (copyright expired)
• "Advance Australia Fair" (copyright expired)
• "Namibia, Land of the Brave" (copyrighted)

If you are adding a new text on Wikisource, follow the local guidelines. Use Template:wikisource-inline at the top of the external links section to link to works on Wikisource (see the documentation). For example, use {{wikisource-inline|Anthem for Doomed Youth}} to link to the poem "Anthem for Doomed Youth". This produces the line below: Works related to Anthem for Doomed Youth at Wikisource

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