Have to agree with Jim here.

However GG I don't very often agree with Phillips Barry so I will indulge in a bit of coffin kicking. 'living organism, tune and text together' okay, but a poor analogy 'spirit and body'; which is the spirit and which is the body? If the tune is lost you're left with a poem, which isn't dead, it can be read or recited with pleasure. Also the tunes are frequently very beautiful things in their own right. Listened on the Radio today and caught 2 lots of classically arranged folksongs quite by chance, beautiful stuff!(IMO) I can and do frequently appreciate the tune of a folk song without knowing any of the words