Thank you for your response, and I appreciate you going into depth with your thoughts! Like you, I have a low opinion of what's at the top of the pop music charts. The best lyrics take some searching to find. On top of Dylan, there's David Bowie and Peter Gabriel, although you probably have to go back years to find their best stuff. Some songs might have only a few good lines, like "I'll make it to the moon if I have to crawl" (Anthony Kiedis) which imho does everything you would want a single line of poetry to do. I'm a huge fan of Eliot, "Prufrock" is my favorite poem in English. I worry he is thought pretentious, causing other poets to put distance between them and him. Their lines sound like they could occur in everyday conversation, instead of something I wish I could have written.