Some might not consider a song lyricist a poet, or perhaps just not a master poet; yet others would agree with me that the better lyrics of Cole Porter, for example, ought to qualify as poems and that he should therefore be considered a master lyricist, ergo master poet.
But has anyone made a study of the prosody of song lyrics? Considering how the "readings" must conform to the music, is there any system or method that can be relied upon in writing a lyric for music not yet composed? I have always had some knack for composing pleasant melodies, and also a bit of talent for writing rythmic verse, but when I try to make a melody for my verses, the music fails, and when I try to write lyrics for my melodies, the words fail. Words and the melody seem to arise from disjoined parts of my brain, and they never combine.
Here, for a starter, is the lyric (by Otto Harback) of a song that, in my day, most people liked. Look at the odd thing the music seems to do to the scansion of the lyric:
THEY/ ASKED me/ HOW i/KNEW
MY/ true LOVE/ was TRUE.
I/of COURSE/ re PLIED
SOME/thing HERE/ in SIDE
CAN/not BE/ de NIED.
THEY/ SAID "some/ DAY you'll/ FIND
ALL/ who LOVE/ are BLIND;
WHEN/ your HEART'S/ on FIRE
YOU/ must RE/al IZE
SMOKE/gets IN/ your EYES."
so i CHAFFED/ them AND/ i GAI/ ly LAUGHED
to THINK/ they could DOUBT/ my LOVE;
yet to DAY/ my LOVE/ has FLOWN/ a WAY
i AM/ with OUT/ my LOVE.
NOW,/ LAUGH ing/ FRIENDS de/RIDE
TEARS/ i CAN/not HIDE
SO/ i SMILE/ and SAY,
"WHEN/ a LOVE/ly flame DIES
SMOKE/ gets IN/ your EYES."
Doubtless other scans are possible, but the longer notes at the beginnings and ends of the lines do alter the reading from that which we might otherwise find natural.
Is there craft or science here that good lyricists know, or is it all instinctive?
Comment? Examples?
G.
[This message has been edited by Golias (edited August 21, 2001).]
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