I lost the beautiful rainbow,
I lost the morning dew;
I lost the angel who gave me
Summer the whole winter through,
I lost the gladness that turned into sadness,
When I lost you.
The birds ceased their song, right turned to wrong,
Sweetheart, when I lost you.
A day turned to years, the world seem'd in tears,
Sweetheart, when I lost you.
II. QUALITIES OF THE POPULAR SONG LYRIC
Having read these eleven lyrics of varying emotions, note the rather obvious fact that
1. Most Popular Songs Have Two Verses and One Chorus
I am not now speaking of the "production song," which may have a dozen verses, and as many different catch-lines in the chorus to stamp the one chorus as many different choruses, but only of the popular song. And furthermore, while two different choruses are sometimes used in popular songs, the common practice is to use but one chorus.
Now let us see the reason for a peculiarity that must have struck you in reading these lyrics.
2. A Regular Metre is Rare
Metre is the arrangement of emphatic and unemphatic syllables in verse on a measured plan, and is attained by the use of short syllables of speech varied in different rotations by long syllables. The metrical character of English poetry depends upon the recurrence of similarly accented syllables at short and more or less regular intervals. Let us take this as the definition of what I mean by metre in the few sentences in which I shall use the word.
Among recognized poets there has always been a rather strict adherence to regularity of form. Indeed, at times in the history of literature, poetry, to be considered poetry, had to confine itself to an absolutely rigid form. In such periods it has been as though the poet were presented with a box, whose depth and breadth and height could not be altered, and were then ordered to fill it full of beautiful thoughts expressed in beautiful words, and to fill it exactly, or be punished by having his work considered bad.