A Mountain Goat for Top Poet Perch?

Rahav Segev for The New York Times John Darnielle performing at Webster Hall in 2008.

If one were establishing the odds of a songwriter being named U.S. Poet Laureate, the logical favorite might be Bob Dylan. Or Paul Simon. But what about John Darnielle?

Far less famous than Mr. Dylan or Mr. Simon, Mr. Darnielle, who is the leader of the band Mountain Goats, has rabid fans that view him as a writer as much as a musician, and now many of them are petitioning the government to name him Poet Laureate. The petition, created on Wednesday, seeks to compile 25,000 signatures. As of this writing, it has 634.

The Times's Jon Pareles has called Mr. Darnielle a “literary thinker” whose songs “have revolved around their lyrics: autobiography, travelogues, couple chronicles and character studies.” Sasha Frere-Jones at The New Yorker once called Mr. Darnielle “America's best non-hip-hop lyricist,” and wrote of the people in one song: “Cyrus and Jeff are familiar Mountain Goats characters, long on bad luck and short on problem-solving skills, and Darnielle, through his poetry, grants them the dignity that eludes them in their lives.”

The petition reads, in part: “An insp iration to poets, artists and sundry other human beings both in America and worldwide, Mr. Darnielle is a unique voice in modern word and music. For over 20 years, Mr. Darnielle has struggled on our behalf to come to terms with the base instincts of the human psyche.”

Though jovial when performing, Mr. Darnielle is quick to explore dark corners in his work. The song “No Children,” which elicits perhaps the loudest sing-along participation from fans at concerts, is a bleak tale of a rotting marriage, with this verse near the end:

“I am drowning
There is no sign of land
You are coming down with me
Hand in unlovable hand”

On Twitter, where he has more than 57,000 followers, Mr. Darnielle has been having fun with this latest show of support, writing, among other things: “Do I get powers of clemency if I get this poet laureate g ig or are those only for third-level clerics[?]”