Although the body of Skelton's surviving independent lyrics is not a large one, his interest in short verse forms and their potential is evident in many aspects of his writing, infiltrating longer poems in a variety of ways – sometimes simply in the form of quoted titles or snatches of song, like those of Hervy Hafter and Ryotte in The Bowge of Courte (235–59, 360–71; for discussion of these and the songs mentioned by Skelton elsewhere see Carpenter 1955). His interest in short forms reflects knowledge of both Latin and English traditions, and some of the works which might invite consideration as part of his lyric corpus are either in Latin or in combinations of Latin and English (see for example the ‘elegy’ in Phyllyp Sparowe, 826–43; and the mixed English and Latin of Epitaphe and Against Dundas). One major challenge in discussing Skelton's lyrics is simply deciding what they are, since they are not always easily separable from their surroundings. Some are interpolated in longer works, such as the Garlande or Chapelet of Laurell, others sewn together in loosely connected strings, as in Agenst Garnesche, a series of ‘flytyngs’ from the years 1513–19, retrospectively assembled in one manuscript booklet (CEP: XIII; and see LW). A ‘creed’ for noblemen, consisting of a burden and two stanzas of skeltonics, is printed as an independent lyric in Certayne bokes compyled by Mayster Skelton (printed by Lant, c. 1545; STC 22615), and in Stow's 1568 edition of the Pithy pleasaunt and profitable workes of maister Skelton (printed by Marshe; STC 22608), where it has its own title in the list of contents (‘The relucent mirror’); but it appears in other witnesses attached to the start of Why Come Ye Nat to Courte?. These are just some of the kinds of textual uncertainty which can stand in the way of identifying Skelton's lyrics.

Even more than is the case with Skelton's other works, uncertain attributions in surviving witnesses mean that the canon of short poems is hard to define.