Lyrics you can't decide if you love or hate- Page 3

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 9/11/14 at 9:37pm

Thanks, Someone. I'll be happy to have a bilateral conversation with you any time! If you get to Palm Springs, I'll buy lunch.

The technical term for "aural repetition" is "identity". It means the identical sound is repeated rather than a true rhyme; and as I said above it isn't a crime. You quote perhaps the most famous example of a musical theater song with virtually no true rhymes at all.

Hammerstein certainly knew the difference (he discusses it in his book, LYRICS, I believe). Also from SOUTH PACIFIC:

"Younger than springtime, are you
Softer than starlight, are you,
Warmer than winds of June,
Are the gentle lips you gave me.
Gayer than laughter, are you,
Sweeter than music, are you,
Angel and lover, heaven and earth,
Are you to me."

Not a single rhyme in the entire stanza! I think Hammerstein is using identities in these two songs because the characters are pouring out their hearts and rhymes tend to sound cleverer than identities.

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Thanks for the correct pronunciation of Concord. My daughter and grandchildren live in MA, so I know they speak a form of English unique to them. But I don't know the show and whether it is consistent in such matters.

Not my favorite use of identity, not even now that I understand it. "Leaving New York unconquered" isn't the sort of "straight from the heart" expression that inspires Hammerstein to use identities.