[QUOTE=jsgoddess]
I disagree. The use of enjambment in lyrics and poetry keeps the rhythms of the line smooth and natural, and allow rhyme not to hit you over the head. Similiarly, slant rhyming (pointed out in some cases above) allows the writer to include more naturalistic and surprising words as rhymes while still having some of the effect of rhyme.
In some cases, slants might be used out of laziness. Enjambment rarely is, as most people find it much easier to write end-stopped lines than enjambed ones.
[/QUOTE]
Except in this case (“Beautiful Day”), at least, the enjambment does serve to make the rhyme hit you over the head even harder than it would have normally, because the “…a hand” part so obviously was thrown in just so he could rhyme “friend” and “lend”.
[QUOTE=Biffy the Elephant Shrew]
Not that it makes the unbelievably forced rhyme much better, but that word is “precocious.”
[/QUOTE]
I thought that wasn’t quite right. The web site I Googled for the lyrics was a Dutch site (I was in a hurry as I was at work in between calls and clicked the link at random), where the person who posted it may have not been 100% clear on the lyrics.
[QUOTE=woodstockbirdybird]
Except in this case (“Beautiful Day”), at least, the enjambment does serve to make the rhyme hit you over the head even harder than it would have normally, because the “…a hand” part so obviously was thrown in just so he could rhyme “friend” and “lend”.
[/QUOTE]
Strangely, this exact part is on the Amazon clip:
I have no problem with the rhyme. I think it’s well done. I don’t see how the “a hand” part is thrown in at all, since it’s the only thing that would make sense with the following line, and he doesn’t use a ghastly inversion like:
You thought you’d found a friend
To take you out of this place
Someone you could a hand lend
In return for grace
Which is what you’d find in many amateur writings.
[QUOTE=jsgoddess]
Strangely, this exact part is on the Amazon clip:
I have no problem with the rhyme. I think it’s well done. I don’t see how the “a hand” part is thrown in at all, since it’s the only thing that would make sense with the following line, and he doesn’t use a ghastly inversion like:
You thought you’d found a friend
To take you out of this place
Someone you could a hand lend
In return for grace
Which is what you’d find in many amateur writings.
[/QUOTE]
Or he could have written something that fit the meter without having to resort to it at all. From a guy who wrote, on the same album:
Grace, it’s the name for a girl
It’s also a thought that changed the world
And when she walks on the street
You can hear the strings
Grace finds goodness in everything
Grace, she’s got the walk
Not on a ramp or on chalk
She’s got the time to talk…
I love “comically forced” rhymes. I cackle every time I hear a song called “Countrier Than Thou” by Robbie Fulks, in which he rails against yuppies who pretend they’re all down-home and backwoods-y.
Among the rhymes:
You ain’t never read a Bible,
Tell me, why’s your vibe all,
Countrier than thou?
Not sure if this fits in, but it bugs the lowflying heeby-jeebies out of me. I’m not a native english speaker myself, but I am pretty fluent in the language. And mangling a saying just to make it rhyme? Bring the tar and feathers!!!
Lily Allen - Smile (2006)
*I was so lost back then
but with a little help from my friends
I found the light in the tunnel at the end *
Brrrrrrrrrrr…
2) The forced circumstantial rhyme - Casually throwing in something whose key traits that just happen to rhyme.
From: Billy Joel’s Piano Man
And he’s talking with Davy who’s still in the Navy
I see this type of thing way to often. You can bet your ass that the guy either:
A) Goes by David
OR
B) Is in the Army instead and gets his whole history of service misrepresented just because Billy Joel wants to fill some space cheaply and easily.
[/QUOTE]
I’m not sure if you knew that the song derives from BJ’s experience as a piano player in a bar, but at any rate, he has said that there was a regular, named Davy, who was in the Navy. Paul, the real estate agent who claimed to be writing the Great American Novel, was also a reg, and the bartender was a wannabe actor. So Davy/Navy was not a forced rhyme. Sorry.
