Sheezus the Intrinsic Poet

Not your typical poet, Lily Allen, a British pop singer known for her silly, controversial lyrics, shares similar characteristics of the women mentioned in Kaufman's and Baer's, I Bask in Dreams of Suicide: Mental Illnesses, Poetry, and Women. Lily Allen is not a classic poet, but by turning “inward for inspiration” she shows that song writing can be seen as a branch of poetry. She writes music which can be really shocking to new listeners because of how unapologetic she is. Songs like “Him” and “F**k You,” which are both about George Bush and his lack of capabilities as a president, demonstrate her intrinsic motivation in creating music because she wants to share how she feels about the world through her eyes. Some of her music has been inspired by her mental health issues such as being bipolar, postnatal depression, and PTSD. Kaufman and Baer wrote that people with mental illness have been linked to having a peaked interest in writing poetry and that speaks for some of Allen’s creations.

In her second album, It’s Not Me, It’s You, Lily Allen sings “Everyone’s At It” which talks about drug use, specifically cocaine, and her own use of the drug singing“I get involved but I'm not advocating.” She brings up her troubles with drug use again on her new album No Shame in the song “Trigger Bang”  singing “Anything went, I was famous...Everyone knows what cocaine does/Numbing the pain when the shame comes” to further explain the hardships of fame and the use of cocaine. Issues with drug use is how Allen looked inward and found inspiration through assessing her life and making her past actions become part of her music.

In 2010, Allen experienced post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) after having a stillbirth with her first child George. Lily Allen said that she laid “in a hospital bed with [her] deceased son stuck between [her] legs halfway out of [her] body for ten hours.” This traumatic event in her life inspired the song “Take My Place” on her Sheezus album. Allen again dealt with childbirth issues with her daughter Ethel who was born extremely sick and was tube-fed for 7 months which led to Lily’s postnatal depression. This was brought on partly because of “‘what had happened to [her] in the past, [Allen] couldn't take [her] eyes off [Ethel]. It was mentally exhausting.’" Kaufman and Baer wrote that women in poetry “suffer from greater psychological stress” than any other female or male writers and I think that Lily Allen has definitely embodied that with the incredible amount of stress life has put on her.

Her latest album, No Shame, is meant to showcase her life from an outside perspective from family and paparazzi as well as from “her own self-deprecating gaze.” She tackles issues covering her public divorce, her struggle with parenthood, and drinking and drug use habits. With mellow songs meant for reflection, “vulnerability is the record's greatest asset” because we see a side of Allen that is usually disguised by an upbeat tempo.

Allen takes her struggles with mental health and uses it as intrinsic motivation to write music that will express what she and other women have experienced in life. Kaufman and Baer write that women struggle with avoiding extrinsic motivation when writing poetry because of a natural need to “attune to the needs of others” and, frankly this sounds slightly sexist, even though Allen might have experienced something like this at some point, she has currently put herself in a place of using her work to reveal a deeper self, not worrying about extrinsic motivators but focusing on bettering her inner self.

Sources:

-https://songmeanings.com/songs/view/3530822107858752128/

-https://www.eonline.com/news/531778/lily-allen-talks-devastating-still-birth-i-nearly-died-and-i-didn-t-care

-https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/lily-allen-online-abuse-stillbirth-son-mental-health_uk_58b2a511e4b0a8a9b782f372

- https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/lily-allen-no-shame/

-https://www.theguardian.com/music/2018/sep/15/lily-allen-brazen-behaviour-didnt-care-sophie-heawood

-http://aluna-festival.fr/artists/lily-allen/

- Kaufman and Baer. "I Bask in Dreams of Suicide: Mental Illness, Poetry, and Women."