This week Robyn talked about techniques for lyric writing1 , such as analyzing metric feet. I was already conscious of metric feet due to study in high school, and had even already applied deliberate use of iambic pentameter as part of a stanza in reference to Shakespeare in one of my songs:
So no I won’t beware the Ides of March
Though it led Caesar to his brutal fate
Into the Bard read in as much you like
I find he lacks in journalistic weight
By utilizing a typical syllabic rhythm of his writing, my invoking of Shakespeare contains another layer of complexity to give the lyrics additional depth.
The other device that was covered in the lesson was the use of lyrical modes – or as I had known them: first, second and third person – and I reflected on how I had used them interchangeably in my songwriting depending on how I wanted to convey the message. In the lyrical passage above, I’d even switched between all three in one stanza: with Lyrical mode in the first and last line, Narrative mode in the second, and Dramatic mode in the third.
1 Habel, Robyn. “Prosody, Metre and Lyric Modes”. Lecture presented at the course Song Writing and Performance 1B, University of Adelaide, July 29, 2019.
Jachin's Songwriting and Performance Journal 