# Best/most creative rhyming couplet in a song **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 17, 2006, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-most-creative-rhyming-couplet-in-a-song/348795 "2006-03-17T19:32:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![jackelope](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a6a055/32.png) [@jackelope](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jackelope)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2006, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-most-creative-rhyming-couplet-in-a-song/348795/41 "2006-03-20T00:33:02Z")
Frank Black (former Pixies frontman/songwriter) wrote a song called “The Swimmer” on his album _Dog in the Sand_, containing the rhyme: > [@](#): > > In division pelagic > You were choragic. Amazingly, he manages to make these two lines work in the midst of a song that _completely fucking rocks_. ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Doubt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/df705f/32.png) [@Peter\_Doubt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Doubt)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2006, 10:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-most-creative-rhyming-couplet-in-a-song/348795/42 "2006-03-20T10:37:39Z")
My first thoughts were of Pink Floyd, **Wish you were here** \*And did they get you to trade your heroes for ghosts? Hot ashes for trees? Hot air for a cool breeze? Cold comfort for change? And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage? \* **Southhampton Dock** _She stands upon Southampton Dock with her handkerchief and her summer frock clings to her wet body in the rain In quiet desperation knuckles White upon the slippery reins She bravely waves the boys goodbye again_ ---
**Author:** ![Small\_Clanger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9fc348/32.png) [@Small\_Clanger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Small_Clanger)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2006, 10:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-most-creative-rhyming-couplet-in-a-song/348795/43 "2006-03-20T10:50:12Z")
> [@ddgryphon](#): > > You quote Vatican Rag and leave out “Make a cross on your abdomen/when in Rome do like a Roman!” Fie upon you. Fie I say. Well basically you’d have to post the whole song. My Lehrer contribution (not a couplet) from the Elements (obviously) _Argon Krypton Neon Raydon Xenon Zinc and Rhodium and Chlorine Carbon Cobolt Copper Tungsten Tin and Sodium_ Cannot. . . Resist. . . Poisoning Pidgeons in the Park _When they see us coming the birdies all try’n’hide But they still go for peanuts when coated in cyanide_ And old Robyn Hitchcock song, again not a couplet (sorry) _All aboard - Brenda’s iron sledge All aboard - Brenda’s iron sledge Please don’t call me Reg It’s not my name_ Maybe you had to be there. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2006, 1:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-most-creative-rhyming-couplet-in-a-song/348795/44 "2006-03-20T13:20:04Z")
from Forbidden Broadway’s Ethel Merman parody: You don’t need amplifying You’ll be loud as a lion Be like me, use your dia- phram. Take that thing off your forehead It looks like a nuke warhead And you sound sheepish as a lamb. Using “diaphram” as a double rhyme for lion and lamb is pure genius. ---
**Author:** ![MonkeyMensch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@MonkeyMensch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MonkeyMensch)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2006, 1:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-most-creative-rhyming-couplet-in-a-song/348795/45 "2006-03-20T13:29:57Z")
From **Company** , courtesy of _Stephen Sondheim_: _When a person’s personality is personable He shouldn’t ought to sit like a lump. It’s harder than a matador coercin’ a bull To try to get you off of your rump._ ::Chuckle:: ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2006, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-most-creative-rhyming-couplet-in-a-song/348795/46 "2006-03-20T14:21:16Z")
[DRE]What’chu say? [EMINEM]What’s wrong? Didn’t think I’d remember? [DRE]I’ma kill you motherfucker! [EMINEM]Uhhh-aahh! Temper temper! Mr. Dre? Mr. N.W.A.? Mr. AK comin’ straight outta Compton y’all better make way? Eminem/Dr Dre - Guilty Conscience ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2006, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-most-creative-rhyming-couplet-in-a-song/348795/47 "2006-03-20T18:29:50Z")
From Rent “You’ll See” You want to produce films and write songs?/You need a place to do it It’s what we always dreamed about/Think twice before you pooh-pooh it ---
**Author:** ![Argent\_Towers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e8c25b/32.png) [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2006, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-most-creative-rhyming-couplet-in-a-song/348795/48 "2006-03-20T18:41:38Z")
Say what you want about Eminem, in his heyday he was damn creative. _I don’t have that bad of a mouth, do I? Fuck, shit, ass, bitch, cunt, shoo-be-dee-doo-wop?_ _Skippity-bee-bop, a’Christopher Reeves, Sonny Bono, skis, horses, and hittin’ some trees_ Easily my all time favorite rap lyrics! ---
**Author:** ![Scupper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b9bd4f/32.png) [@Scupper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scupper)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2006, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-most-creative-rhyming-couplet-in-a-song/348795/49 "2006-03-20T19:24:20Z")
I submit the following from **The Bloodhound Gang** : From _Bad Touch:_ > [@](#): > > You and me, baby, ain’t nothin’ but mammals, > So let’s do it like they do on the discovery channel. > > … > > Love: the kind you clean up with a mop and bucket. > Like the lost catacombs of Egypt only God knows where we stuck it. > Hieroglyphics? Let me be specific: I wanna be down in your South Seas, > But I got this notion that the motion of your ocean means “Small Craft Advisory” > So if I capsize on your thighs high tide, B5 you sunk my battleship. > Please turn me on I’m Mister Coffee with an automatic drip. From _Take the Long Way Home:_ > [@](#): > > Did you ever read Voltaire’s “Candide”? > He says ‘Live life at Benny-Hill-freak-out-speed’. > (Not a quote of what he wrote but a paraphrase. > Make it up as you go, Keyser Soze.) > > … > > All born equal (unless you’re Canadian, > Or halfway through decay like Uranium.) > > … > > But we’ve all got to Wang Chung with the Grim Reaper. > Whether you’re Einstein or whether you’re Beaker, > Death is certain so it’s definitely worth flirtin’ > Don’t expect a bright light. No, just curtains. > Life is like a penis most people don’t know it, > But most people suck so they usually blow it. ---
**Author:** ![Bomzaway](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e480ec/32.png) [@Bomzaway](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bomzaway)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2006, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-most-creative-rhyming-couplet-in-a-song/348795/50 "2006-03-20T20:09:16Z")
Ah, rap. From Mack 10’s Connected for life… To all the bitches that think they bootylicious I think they nutritious I think they do dishes Get’s ya right there, don’t it? 😉 ---
**Author:** ![YWalker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/6f9a4e/32.png) [@YWalker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YWalker)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2006, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-most-creative-rhyming-couplet-in-a-song/348795/51 "2006-03-20T20:42:02Z")
“Predictable,” from Pete Townshend’s “Psychoderelict” album: > [@](#): > > Your body’s so delectable > I know for sure I’m gonna be amazed > You get me so erectable > I can predict you’re gonna leave me raised ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2006, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-most-creative-rhyming-couplet-in-a-song/348795/52 "2006-03-20T23:28:46Z")
> [@Bomzaway](#): > > Ah, rap. > Get’s ya right there, don’t it? 😉 As does, She’s addicted To what my dick did. from one of the artists on the **juice** soundtrack, but I hate to google it at work!! ---
**Author:** ![Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2006, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-most-creative-rhyming-couplet-in-a-song/348795/53 "2006-03-20T23:37:51Z")
Because I remain obsessed with the _Wicked_ OCR, A triplet/couplet combination, from **Popular** : Don’t be offended by my frank analysis, think of it as personality dialysis, now that i’ve chosen to become a pal, a sis- ter and advisor, there’s nobody wiser! ---
**Author:** ![easy\_e](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/eb8c5e/32.png) [@easy\_e](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/easy_e)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2006, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-most-creative-rhyming-couplet-in-a-song/348795/54 "2006-03-21T02:19:18Z")
> [@Treviathan](#): > > The Decemberists have some great lyrics. Though it’s not a couplet, one of my favorite rhymes of theirs is in the song “Here I Dreamt I Was an Architect,” when lyricist Colin Meloy rhymes “Birkenau” with “lay my rifle down.” Speaking of The Decemberists, how about their song “The Infanta”: “And above all this folderol On a bed made of chaparral She is laid, a coronal placed on her brow.” There’s a lot more–some of the other interesting couples include palanquin with elephant, pachyderm with passenger’d, and coach-and-fours with King of Moors. Their song “The Legionnaire’s Lament” has good rhymes, too: "I’m a legionnaire, camel in disrepair, hoping for a frigid air to come passing by. I am on reprieve, lacking my joie de vivre, missing my gay Paris [pronounced in the French manner] in this desert dry. [snip] Medicating in the sun, pinched doses of laudanum, longing for the old fecund- ity of my homeland. Curses to this mirage! A bottle of ancient Shiraz, a smattering of distant applause is ringing in my ears." ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2006, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-most-creative-rhyming-couplet-in-a-song/348795/55 "2006-03-21T14:16:00Z")
> [@Otto](#): > > Because I remain obsessed with the _Wicked_ OCR, > > A triplet/couplet combination, from **Popular** : > > Don’t be offended by my frank analysis, > think of it as personality dialysis, > now that i’ve chosen to become a pal, a sis- > ter and advisor, > there’s nobody wiser! Lyrics by Stephen Schwartz, who has an incredible talent for writing internal rhymes. My favorite is from “Mass” There are people who doubt it. There are people who doubt it and shout it out loud. There are local vocal yokels who we know collect a crowd. “Local Vocal Yokels.” ---
**Author:** ![Quercus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/7ab992/32.png) [@Quercus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quercus)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2006, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-most-creative-rhyming-couplet-in-a-song/348795/56 "2006-03-21T14:42:16Z")
Believe it or not, my entry is from Pete Seeger (et. al.) with new lyrics to “Old Time Religion” (It helps with a New England accent) - Let us pray just like Egyptians Build pyramids to put our crypts in Fill subways with inscriptions and that’s good enough for me Let us pray to dear old Budda For their is no one cuter He comes in plaster, wood or pewter, and that’s good enough for me Let us pray to Zarathustra Pray just like they used to I’m a Zarathustra booster and that’s good enough for me! \* ---
**Author:** ![Jacob\_Silj](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@Jacob\_Silj](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jacob_Silj)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2006, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-most-creative-rhyming-couplet-in-a-song/348795/57 "2006-03-21T14:45:58Z")
don’t really care for rap but I gotta mention from Ice Cube/NWA, “Express Yourself”: Movin like a tortoise/ Full of Rigor Mortis ---
**Author:** ![August\_West](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/august_west/32/18069_2.png) [@August\_West](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/August_West)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2006, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-most-creative-rhyming-couplet-in-a-song/348795/58 "2006-03-21T14:52:18Z")
Eminem has some really amazing internal rhymes. One of my favorites: “I guess that’s the gist of it/ The parents are pissed, but the kids love it” He puts a little emphasis on the ‘of’ in the first line, making it just an excellent couplet. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-most-creative-rhyming-couplet-in-a-song/348795.md?page=2)