Writing Lyrics

Stage 5

Rhyming Techniques

• Internal Rhyme– Rhyming of two words within the same line of

poetry. The following, for example, is from Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Raven” :

Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,

Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore

Rhyming Techniques

• Rich Rhymes– Rhyme using two different words that happen

to sound the same (i.e. homonyms) – for example “raise” and “raze”. The following example – a triple rich rhyme – is from Thomas Hood’s” A First Attempt in Rhyme” : 

Partake the fire divine that burns,

In Milton, Pope, and Scottish Burns

Who sang his native braes and burns.

Rhyming Techniques

• Slant Rhymes (also known as imperfect rhymes)– Rhyme in which two words share just a vowel

sound or in which they share just a consonant sound. The following example is also from Seamus Heaney’s “Digging” : 

Between my finger and my thumb

The squat pen rests; snug as a gun 

Rhyming Techniques

• Eye Rhymes– Rhyme on words that look the same but which

are actually pronounced differently – for example “bough” and “rough”. The opening four lines of Shakespeare’s Sonnet 18, for example, go : 

Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?Thou art more lovely and more temperate:Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,And summer’s lease hath all too short a date: 

Rhyming Techniques

• Identical Rhymes– Simply using the same word twice. An

example is in (some versions of) Emily Dickinson’s “Because I Could not Stop for Death” : 

We paused before a House that seemedA Swelling of the Ground—The Roof was scarcely visible—The Cornice—in the Ground— 

Analysing Lyrics

• Look and listen to the lyrics on the next slide and identify the different rhyming techniques.

• List examples of the different rhyming techniques from the song

Closer by Ne-Yo

Turn the lights off in this place And she shines just like a star And I swear I know her face I just don’t know who you are

Turn the music up in here I still hear her loud and clear Like she’s right there in my ear Telling me that she wants to

Just a Dream by Nelly

I was thinking 'bout her, thinkin 'bout meThinking 'bout us, what we gon' beOpen my eyes yeah, it was only just a dreamSo I travelled back down that roadWill she come back? No one knowsI realize, yeah, it was only just a dream

I was at the top and now it's like I'm in the basementNumber one spot and now she find her a replacementI swear now I can't take it, knowing somebody's got my babyAnd now you ain't around baby I can't thinkI should've put it down, should've got the ringCause I can still feel it in the airSee her pretty face, run my fingers through her hairMy lover, my life, my shawty, my wifeShe left me, I'm tiedCause I knew that it just ain't right

Write Lyrics

• In your workbooks or on your computer write your own lyrics on anything you like

• Write a verse and a chorus

• Must include some rhyming techniques