Thanks for chiming in, Tony.
Yes, the stresses of both melodies and poems have relative strengths, complicating analyis. Waits's lyrics and melody seem to match pretty closely; the content of each line is in the first and last two feet, the melody's caesura carrying only the "til/until" connective stuff.
(FWIW, Nanci Griffith's cover doesn't stress the middle syllable of "melody.")
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