I hope this won't turn into trad vs. non-trad thread. What I had in mind was a discussion of lyrics with power, so whether it's singer-songwriter or trad.that does it for you, have at it.

That said, it would be interesting to hear from folks on my side of the Atlantic about traditional lyrics that take your breath away.

There are plenty of fine songwriters that don't manage to achieve this: Lennon/Macartney to name two. I wouldn't include many Bob Dylan songs either. Much as I like his music, he never wrote anything (IMHO) that equalled the emotional impact of Stan Rogers or Ian Tyson at their best.

Here's some more:

La reine a fait faire un bouquet
De belles fleurs de lise
Et la senteur de ce bouquet
A fait mourir Marquise

(Le roi a fait battre tambour)

Hard to get any simpler than that and it's all there in high definition - the bitter hatred of the queen for the Marquise, who is only the victim of the philandering king. You can practically put yourself in the room in the royal palace where the Marquise dies alone.