This brings me back to when I wanted to take a special course on prosody: the metrics of poetry, the rhyme schemes, the rhythms, and all the technical stuff that went into this subject, captured best by reliable textbooks of the 19th century I used to own and peruse. A professor, uninterested, dissuaded me saying I could learn it on my own, implictly hinting as well that it likely wasn’t worthwhile. As a writer of poetry and student of older poetry especially, I was a bit disappointed, but did teach myself a thing or two.
How strange to think about that time and this topic after such a long time away from “home,” but the simple, deliberate poetic choices of “The Sun and the Rainfall” of our parallel post brings me back.
Someone will call
Something will fall
And smash on the floor
Without reading the text
Know what comes next
Seen it before
And it’s painful
Something will fall
And smash on the floor
Without reading the text
Know what comes next
Seen it before
And it’s painful
[The rhyme scheme is straightforward AABCCBD. The “someone” and “something” is a nice touch too.]
Things must change
We must rearrange them
Or we’ll have to estrange them
All that I’m saying
A game’s not worth playing
Over and over again
We must rearrange them
Or we’ll have to estrange them
All that I’m saying
A game’s not worth playing
Over and over again
[ABBCC and A (almost). Two “feminine” rhymes, that is two-syllable rhymes, “-ange them,” for example. I like how the two “-ange them” rhymes are tied to the first line’s “change.” Assonance throughout, with the “ay” sounds, viz. -ange, -aying, -ain.]
You’re the one I like best
You retain my interest
You’re the only one
If it wasn’t for you
Don’t know what I’d do
Unpredictable like the sun
And the rainfall.
You retain my interest
You’re the only one
If it wasn’t for you
Don’t know what I’d do
Unpredictable like the sun
And the rainfall.
[Return to the first verse, AABCCBD, with the D here nearly the same as the first verse’s: “painful” and “rainfall” with the plangent consonance and variation of the vowel sounds, slant rhyme. Nice, harmonious touch as in the first verse, leading with “you’re” and “you retain,” which is even an eye rhyme: “you’re” and “you re”.]
Not only is this craft of this poetry charming and beautiful, the song is part of one of the great “hat tricks” (three great songs in a row): “Photograph of You,” “Shouldn’t Have Done That,” and the cap, “The Sun and the Rainfall.”
What better song, with it’s soft, slightly muffled production, complex layering, tiny tinges of sound, music in no hurry, subtly poetic lyrics, and highest of compliments? It brings to mind an A. E. Housman poem in style and atmosphere.
And what better album to listen to on one of those hottest summer days of the year with blearing sun and wistful memories and, as so often, rainfall on my mind?
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[…] Someone will callSomething will fallAnd smash on the floorWithout reading the textKnow what comes nextSeen it beforeAnd it’s painful [He’s speaking generally here, with no specific relationship being referred to, just observations of close human relationships he’s seen and experienced. Tense disputes, conflicts.] Things must changeWe must rearrange themOr we’ll have to estrange themAll that I’m sayingA game’s not worth playingOver and over again [To me, the “we” used here is not specifically the singer and his significant other, it’s the more general “we.” People need variety, change, growth; it’s healthy and keeps love alive, especially when a rut or chronic conflict arises. ] You’re the one I like bestYou retain my interestYou’re the only oneIf it wasn’t for youDon’t know what I’d doUnpredictable like the sunAnd the rainfall. [The ultimate compliment, at least to nature lovers like me. Something as beautiful as two of those splendid ways we experience the atmosphere—the sun and rain. And as beautifully unpredictable as those two—all the infinite permutations in the weather that are familiar but always fresh, and ever-renewing.] More on this understated creation here. […]
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