Why are we so often told that poetry is like music - or that it is music? Can music communicate meaning, as literature can? When words and music get together in song, what passes between them? Are they allies or enemies? The Word and Music Association was founded, nearly thirty years ago, to ponder such questions. This book tells the tale of the conflicting strands of thought that have lived in and around the Association, where they came from, and where they are heading. It is a fascinating intermedial history that also chronicles the evolution of our assumptions about the arts.