On my pond I see;
And my gander he
Shook both his white wings
Like a sunshine shower.
I venture to say that Irving Berlin himself couldn't have done anything catchier than that by way of a lyric. Or this little snatch of a refrain sung by the old women of the town:
Nay, nay, nay!
A sunshine shower
Won't last a half an hour.
The trouble with most lyrics is that they are written by song-writers who have had no education. Mr. MacKaye's college training shows itself in every line of the opera. There is a subtlety of rhyme-scheme, a delicacy of meter, and, above all, an originality of thought and expression which promises much for the school of university-bred lyricists. [pg 197]Here, for instance, is a lyric which Joe McCarthy could never have written:
Up spoke Nancy, spanking Nancy,