You know that if a line in an English song ends in “dove” or “glove” or “above,” there’s about to be a line ending in “love.” It’s a mildly annoying bit of lazy writing that shows up in way too many songs, due to a quirk in our language.
(sidenote: those links are pretty fun, compilations of hundreds of poem and song snippets with those rhymes).
Since French is different–“colombe” and “gant” and “au-dessus de” don’t rhyme with “amour”–I’m guessing a lot fewer lyrics contain these words, much less end in them. Same thing for other languages: I’m guessing there aren’t many Mandarin songs that reference handwear or German songs referencing pigeons.
The more interesting question is: what are the lazy rhymes in other languages? Does “clamor” show up in a lot of Spanish songs? Does “triebe” show up in a lot of German songs?
Or is this lazy rhyme thing a peculiarly English phenomenon? I hope not, because if it does, that’ll cut like a knife.
There seem to be quite a few French songs about “les gants”, but you’re right that because they’re not part of a crucial rhyme pair it’s more common to write a love song without them.
I have heard it said that rhymes based on final “é” (the vowel sound sort of like the one in English “day”) are considered “low-effort” and uninteresting in French poetry, because there are just so many dang words that end with that sound.
AFAICT the French and Germans both have to be a bit careful about overreliance on rhyming words for “you” and “me” in love lyrics. I.e., “toi” and “moi” in French or “dich” and “mich” in German, along with related forms like “tien(ne)/mien(ne)” or “dir/mir”; those seem to be considered potentially boring and predictable.
The rhyme pair Triebe-Liebe actually turns up often, but the real classic is Herz-Schmerz (heart-pain). Heinz Rudolf Kunze plays on it in his biggest hit “Dein ist mein ganzes Herz” in the chorus.
Dein ist mein ganzes Herz Du bist mein Reim auf Schmerz
I’m talkin’ English here but the use of the word “brain” in songs always seems lazy to me. No idea why. I just feel like people talking about their brains (and the rain, or their pain, or the strain, or being insane) is way more prevalent in songs than real life.
Shakespeare remarks on the phenomenon in Much Ado About Nothing:
Marry, I cannot show it in rhyme; I have tried. I can find out no rhyme to “lady” but “baby,” an innocent rhyme; for “scorn,” “horn,” a hard rhyme; for “school,” “fool,” a babbling rhyme: very ominous endings. No, I was not born under a rhyming planet, nor I cannot woo in festival terms.
Can we extend this thread to forced rhymes in foreign languages ?
With Jane Birkin’s passing a couple weeks ago, I was reminded of how Serge Gainsbourg, who wrote many songs for her, could never resist a pseudo-clever rhyme, where the meaning of the the lyrics is totally dependent on the sounds. Case in point : Quoi - Jane Birkin
It starts so well, with an arresting and heartbreaking first verse. Then the awfully banal and forced one that follows ruins it completely. More infuratingly, the rest of the song is really good, the best of post-70s Birkin.
Quoi, d’notre amour feu n’resterait que des cendres?
Moi, j’aimerais qu´la terre s’arrête pour descendre.
(What, of our dead love only ashes would remain ? I’d like the Earth to stop, so that I could get off).
