This is most certainly true.

"There is occasional poetry in modern hymns, but the intrusion of any hymn as a substitute for the proper liturgy is like interposing Barnby's 'Sweet and Low' in the middle of a performance of the Meistersingers, or reciting a poem of Tennyson between the scenes of Othello. To omit the distinctive note of the propers is to dull the distinctive note of Mass and disintegrate the harmony which blends the epistle and gospel to the permanent office."

Kenneth Ingram, The Pilgrimage of Mass, pg.26

Replace "Barnby's 'Sweet and Low'" with a popular song (Say, Billy Talent's "Fallen leaves") and "Tennyson" with a popular book (Say, maybe a manga or something by Patricia Cornwell) and the point is made even better.