I began writing lyrics in the early 2000s. I came to this with a background of being comfortable with creating music but extremely uncomfortable with creating lyrics.

It's taken me over a decade to develop an ear for the effect of rhyme. These days, I'm a huge supporter of it. I believe that rhyme is one of the most powerful tools that any songwriter has in his/her box of songwriting gear.

Just to clarify... when I talk about rhyme I'm meaning any of the following possibilities (as defined by Pat Pattison in "Writing Better Lyrics" - 2nd ed.)...

  • perfect rhyme - e.g start / heart, tree / sea
  • family rhyme - e.g. slip / crib, hush / clutch
  • subtractive rhyme - e.g. great / prey, toads / load
  • additive rhyme - e.g. go / road, stripe / gripes
  • assonance - e.g. broke / roast, hush / trumps
  • consonance - e.g. barge / edge, sits / floats
  • weak syllable rhyme - e.g. grow / follow, Monday / highway

Because lyrics are entirely aural, rhyme is one way that lyric movement and lyric momentum are created and managed. When an end-of-phrase rhyme is encountered, the listener hears a sense of completion. To my ears, such completion is somewhat similar to the effect of a period at the end of a sentence. This sense of completion might be a single thought (the aural equivalent of a couple of clauses or phrases used to create a sentence) or perhaps a whole section (the aural equivalent of a paragraph). From reading the article at this link, it would seem that Shakespeare was well aware of the power of the rhyme and used it to enhance all he wrote.

Managing the degree of this sense of aural completion assists with the creation of lyric emotion. In my post at this link, I've given some examples of how emotion can be enhanced by considering different possibilities in relation to lyric rhyme.

Using lyrics, it's also possible to create feelings of acceleration and deceleration. Pat Pattison, professor of songwriting and lyric guru from Berklee College, discusses this in detail in his book "Essential Guide To Lyric Form And Structure". Lyrical acceleration is an effect that stands outside the music because, for the most part, music timing remains constant. Such acceleration and deceleration can be used to enhance feelings of excitement, enjoyment, anger, upset, misery, etc. This type of lyric motion significantly enhances the lyric content of the words used and can spotlight important words and ideas.

I'll continue playing around with "Mary Had A Little Lamb" in the same way that I did at the above link.

Let's try accelerating then decelerating Mary through shortening phrase length before the end of the verse. (When reading this aloud, there should be a short pause at the end of each line.)

Quote:

Mary had a little lamb
Its fleece was white as snow
And everywhere that Mary went,
Spring,
Winter,
Summer,
Fall,
The lamb was sure to go.


When I read the above, the delay in getting to the closing rhyme that's created by adding single word phrases makes the last line stand out because it seems to slow down after having the short, accelerated lines before it. The four non-rhyming lines also make the final rhyme of "go" more prominent and the sense of completion is more satisfying. From a lyrics perspective, this makes the last line a perfect location for spotlighting important information (maybe a title). Because the final rhyme has also been amplified, it would be valuable to have a more significant word in the rhyming position. What about...

Quote:

Mary had a little lamb
Its fleece was white as snow
And everywhere that Mary went,
Spring,
Winter,
Summer,
Fall,
The lamb was Mary's rainbow.


The metaphorical connotations of a rainbow seem to set up a second lyric sequence that develops the notion that Mary's lamb brought her joy and happiness. Maybe something like...

Quote:

Mary had a little lamb
Its fleece was white as snow
And everywhere that Mary went,
Spring,
Winter,
Summer,
Fall,
The lamb was Mary's rainbow.

CHORUS
Mary and her lamb
Mary and her lamb
Travel'ing happy everywhere
Mary and her lamb


What about if I repeat the above verse but rhyme the short phrases...

Quote:

Mary had a little lamb
Its fleece was white as snow
And everywhere that Mary went,
Her feet aching,
Her heart breaking,
Her soul shaking,
The lamb was sure to go.


After reading the above aloud, I'm left with a feeling of discomfort from not only the lyric content but also the three consecutive rhymes of shortened phrases. Pat Pattison says that when such a sequence of rhymes is encountered, a listener's brain is waiting for a fourth rhyme to resolve the section. When this doesn't eventuate, feelings of emotion are amplified as the listener's mind processes the lack of lyric balance.

Hmmm.... it seems that I've written a whole heap more than I intended when I sat down to write in this thread.

For what it's worth, the above are just some of my thoughts. I hope that the insight into my thinking is useful in some way.

All the best,
Noel



MY SONGS...
Audiophile BIAB 2025