The Score of Poetry: Ec(h)ology of Water in Florence Welch's 'Useless Magic'

Florence Welch’s 2018 book Useless Magic merges lyrics and poems in which water becomes a signifier for ecological awareness and music’s non-verbal connection with nature. Welch reimagines breath and voice by employing ‘liquid’ textures to overcome semantic limits and bridge the gap between poetry and music. This article analyses her attempt to de- and re-semanticise written poetry through the wordlessness of music, examining her vocal performance and poems on the limits of language against musical scores. Drawing on discourses formulated within the Blue Humanities, hydrofeminism, and music theory, Welch’s will be presented as a multimodal language that fosters a sympoietic becoming-with nature.