Lyrics and poetry
...t the song reads, “Been a long lonely, lonely, lonely, lonely, lonely time.” This is an example of an iambic meter, a succession of alternating unstressed and stressed syllables. This type of meter is one of the most familiar in the English language. This line is also a terminal refrain. A refrain is a group of words or phrases repeated at intervals in a song or poem. Terminal refrains are usually follows immediately after a stanza. Zeppelins lyrics also share another characteristic of meters called a cesura. A cesura is defined as a light but definite pause within a line and is indicated by double lines ||. An example of this can be found in the first line of Black Dog. It reads, “It’s been a long time || since I rock and rolled.” All these devices of rhythm, together with powerful lyrics produce something that is pleasing to hear. Sound is also an important part of poetry. Poetry, like music, must be appealing to hear. Zeppelins poetry is very pleasing to hear for a few reasons. Many of Zeppelins lyrics follow patterns such as assonance. Assonance is defined as a succession of vowel sounds. The song Black Dog for example, has a line that reads “Hey, hey, baby, when you walk that way, watch your honey drip, cant keep away.” The sound of “y” is repeated throughout the line. Zeppelins music is also pleasing to hear because rime is used throughout the lyrics. One of Zeppelins more popular songs, Fool In The Rain, is an perfect example of this. One stanza reads; “And the warmth of your smile starts a-burnin’ And the thrill of your touch gives me fright And I’m shaking so much, really yearning Why don’t you show up, make it right?” As we can see from the above stanza, the lyrics or this song rime, as do many of Zeppelins lyrics. This group of lines follows a certain rime scheme. The rime scheme of a, b, a, b is know as an English sonnet and is repeated throughout the song. Zeppelins song, Fool in the Rain, is a perfect example of poetry. It is almost as if the song was written to be read as a poem. A c...