Old poems used as songs

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The ballad "Scarborough Fair"., sung by many (Sarah Brightman, Celtic Woman, Emerson Lake and Palmer, Simon and Garfunkel) .

Words We are the Music Makers, by Arthur O'Shaughnessy (by the Northwest Choral Society) Poem recitation here.

She walks in Beauty (Lord Byron), sung by Sissel, for the movie "Vanity Fair" (Also, a church choir version) [Rehtaeh seems to do the same version.]

Invictus, by "The Peter Ray Band"

The Highwayman by Alfred Noyes, sung by Loreena McKennitt


(One could turn this approach on its head: Instead of putting a poem to music, find a tune and write a poem to it. This has been done with songs like Yankee-Doodle and others. The familiar tune helps make the new words familiar.)

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