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- Trying to create a rhyme pushes people to either 1) use unnatural vocabulary/grammar, or 2) use cliche rhymes.
- As a result, many songwriters go through a phase where they just don't bother trying to make their lines rhyme.
- But this is a mistake; rhymes are "the ear's road signs" when listening to a song. Poetry that's meant to be read can get away with not rhyming because the reader can see the line breaks.
- NW: He doesn't give a great argument IMO, it's just this 'road signs' analogy. It seems ridiculous for him to say spoken poetry always rhymed, given that (for example) Shakespeare used more blank verse than rhyming verse. I would say: rhyme is naturally aesthetically appealing to people; it tickles their natural pattern-recognition abilities. And by not rhyming you'll lose that aspect of the appeal of music with lyrics. But if you know what you're doing and have some other way of grabbing their interest or don't care about having their interest, then go for it.
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