Songwriting Workshop
A Few Suggestions
about Rhyme
Rhyme Only When You Mean It
Experiment
with rhyming only when it is extra meaningful, when binding the sounds of words emphasizes their
relationship or contrast of meaning. (Rhyme
brings words closer together somehow. “Hug
a slug” from Marrietta is a great example! “Ritter”
and “Splitter” from Wagner’s opera Tristan und Isolde
is also a favorite of mine.)
Rhyming different parts of speech (nouns with adjectives, for example) is more
surprising than rhyming the same parts of speech (nouns with nouns, for
example).
the sad
king drowned
wearing
his royal round --
the crown
drifted down into the mud so brown
drowned/round = verb/noun
crown/down/brown = noun/adverb/adjective
Proper names often suggest unusual rhymes.
A litt’le ol’ lady who was walking down the road,
She was struggling with bags from Tesco;
There were people from the city having
lunch in the park,
I believe that is called “al fresco,” .
. .
(Tesco is a big supermarket chain in
Lily Allen, “LDN”
(This is
a playful yet potent rhyme. It contrasts
continental “old
You just can’t refute that when it’s too close it’s too
cute
A rhyme is a brain stain
(memorable but too neat)
A rhyme stains your beautiful brain
(attempting to space it out a little bit)
Two things float in your mind
With word and sound in your brain
When more words arrive
What rhymes becomes a sound stain.
(still needs a lot of
improvement, but at least it is not cute or comic)
Anaphora
Anaphora
is an attractive alternative to rhyme.
Anaphora
begins each line in the same way.
Anaphora
allows for more freedom than a rhyme scheme.
Anaphora
is good for animating lists.
Example:
“Every Breath You Take,” The Police
“The
First Time Ever I Saw Your Face” Ewan MacColl,
lyricist
Scheme instead of Rhymes
One is
the loneliest number, so it is likely the next line will start with
Two, and
the song will progress from there, on to 3, 4 . . . .
Does the
U2 song “One” play with this? Compare
“one love, one life” to the words in the following verse,
“too late tonight.” A “one-too
punch”?
Monday
implies . . . a Tuesday, and those two together makes a
Wednesday obligatory, and on to complete the week.
Off-rhymes and near-rhymes can be more powerful (or maddening)
The
madrigal “Now is the Month of Maying” establishes a
regular rhyme scheme but ends with an “eye rhyme” (speak/break) that sticks in
my mind. Interesting
that it breaks the scheme with the very word “break.” I find this whole piece irritating and the “speak/break”
is the ultimate irritation, but it is memorable!
Identify devices in the following lyric:
“One”
by U2
Is it
getting better, or do you feel the same?
Will it
make it easier on you, now you got someone to blame?
You say
one love, one life, when it's one need in the night.
One
love, we get to share it
Leaves
you baby if you don't care for it.
Did I
disappoint you or leave a bad taste in your mouth?
You act
like you never had love and you want me to go without.
Well,
it's too late tonight to drag the past out into the light.
We're
one, but we're not the same.
We get
to carry each other, carry each other... one
Have
you come here for forgiveness,
Have
you come to raise the dead
Have
you come here to play Jesus to the lepers in your head
Did I
ask too much, more than a lot
You
gave me nothing, now it's all I got.
We're
one, but we're not the same.
Well,
we hurt each other, then we do it again.
You say
love is a temple, love a higher law
Love is
a temple, love the higher law.
You ask
me to enter, but then you make me crawl
And I
can't be holding on to what you got, when all you got is hurt.
One
love, one blood, one life, you got to do what you should.
One
life with each other: sisters, brothers.
One
life, but we're not the same.
We get
to carry each other, carry each other.
One, one.
Songwriting Workshop Rhyming Notes
Feb 2007
DC Meckler