by Stan Grimes

Created on: June 15, 2008   Last Updated: July 06, 2008

Poetry is poetry whether free verse, blank verse, or no verse. What matters in my estimation is the passion of the poet. Free verse, although, generally doesn't rhyme, but does maintain some kind of pattern.

I have noticed that in much of today's music rhyming is not a necessity(free verse music?), but flow and rhythm are. Songwriters are often musicians and therefore create their own lyrics set to their own melody. Or, as many songwriters do, they collaborate with another artist to create their masterpieces. Perhaps you will remember, as I have, the fantastic creations by Elton John and his friend, Bernie Taupin. Bernie wrote the lyrics while Elton created the music. These two men created a plethora of hits never to be forgotten, e.g., "Bennie And The Jets," "Crocodile Rock," "Rocket Man," and many others. Most of their songs rhymed.

Today, however, if I may be so bold as to jump forward a generation or two, I would like to give you the first four lines of a song by one of my favorite groups, Coldplay. The song is "Yellow" and it is an example of a song with lyrics that do not necessarily rhyme, but the flow is marvelous:

"Look at the stars
See how they shine for you,
And everything you do
Yeah, they were all yellow" (Coldplay)

Obviously the word "yellow" does not fit into the rhyming scheme, but if you have heard the song you will notice that just after the last syllable in yellow, the rhyme is created musically. A guitar chord finishes it with sort of a "do" sound, which of course rhymes with the line before, a genius bit of creativity.

Whether you choose to rhyme your lyrics is not as important as what you are trying to say. What is your message? Many songs are politically oriented, humor-oriented, or emotionally oriented, i.e., love, sadness, hatred, etc. Or, your song could be a combination of all-of-the-above. There is no question you must write with your heart, but you also must keep your passion at bay with remembering form, rhythm, and rhyme.

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