Rhyme scheme

“Can't not think of all the cost And the things that will be lost Oh, can we just get a pause? To be certain we'll be tall again Whether weather be the frost Or the violence of the dog days I'm on waves, out being tossed Is there a line that I could just go cross?”

Uncle Jerry analyzes the rhyme scheme of the bridge extensively: 'cost, lost, pause, which sort of echoes that rhyme. And then again, frost, days, tossed, cross. Isn't that great?' He notes 'It's almost every line rhymes and almost always with the same rhyme,' calling it 'really fun' in terms of poetic technique.

The dense rhyme scheme creates a sonic intensity in the bridge that mirrors the emotional intensity of the speaker's internal dialogue and struggle.

Angela & Uncle Jerry note the rhyme connection between 'sad' at the end of verse one ('You don't get to tell me about sad') and 'bad' at the end of verse two ('You don't get to tell me you feel bad'). Uncle Jerry says he didn't initially connect it until hearing the song, and notes the turn between the two lines is particularly effective.

The sad/bad rhyme across verses creates structural unity while marking the shift from the speaker's pain (sad) to the antagonist's hollow sympathy (bad).

“They say all's well that ends well, but I'm in a new hell”

Uncle Jerry explicitly identifies 'well' and 'hell' as internal rhyme.

The internal rhyme binds the cliché of 'well' to the reality of 'hell,' making the sonic connection emphasize the ironic contrast.

Angela & Uncle Jerry identify a consistent rhyme scheme across the song. Uncle Jerry maps it: verse 1 is A,B,C,B (daydreams/wall/saying/call), pre-chorus follows with screaming/riot/shrieking/quiet, and the pattern of second and fourth lines rhyming holds through the choruses (first/worst, town/now). Uncle Jerry notes this is 'one of the more consistent stanza structures' he's seen her use.

The consistent rhyme scheme provides structural unity that supports the song's measured, prophetic tone.

Uncle Jerry notes internal rhyme in the refrain area, 'bad, sad', and observes that while she hasn't completely cast rhyme aside, the poem is largely free verse with no consistent rhythmic pattern. He notes she 'hasn't completely cast that aside' regarding rhyme.

The sporadic internal rhyme within a largely free-verse structure supports the reminiscent, flowing quality of the speaker's memory.

“Jackals raised their hackles”

Uncle Jerry identifies the internal rhyme of 'jackals' and 'hackles' and debates whether it works or falls into forced rhyme (doggerel). He notes it's 'a funny internal rhyme' and says 'I can't decide whether it's, it drops into forced rhyme. Otherwise known as doggerel.' He wrote the word 'cute' as his initial reaction. Community readers push the reading further: the almost-too-cute rhyme is heard as deliberate, a way of making the critics sound silly and unthreatening: she lets the jackals clatter, and delivers "you're in terrible danger" with the same mock-grave wink.

The internal rhyme's playful or forced quality contributes to the song's sassy register, the speaker's wry treatment of her persecutors.

Uncle Jerry praises the rhyme scheme throughout the song. In verse one, he identifies the rhyme chain of 'postmortem / outdoorsman / them / foreign' noting how they 'all are both alliterative, obviously, in the context of rhyme and not always using the same vowels. But nevertheless, they rhyme.' In verse two, he identifies 'circumstances / dances / glances / chances' as 'just greatness' and notes 'husbands / him / cousins' as slant rhyme 'primarily based on the alliterative ends' that 'really works as rhyme and it just hangs that whole second verse together.' He calls this 'superior work' and contrasts it favorably with less successful rhymes in other songs. Community readers add three craft observations. The chorus chain of circumstances, dances, glances and chances is so predictable the listener can finish each line, the rhyme making the lines fall into place as if the relationship ended the usual way. The first verse's end rhymes all approximate a held "um", the hesitation sound of someone reaching for the next stock reason. And "at the shops" wins out over "store" because it carries the rhyme with "lost", the lexical register following the rhyme requirement.

The rhyme scheme provides sonic cohesion across the song, binding together the postmortem conceit and the carnival/gossip imagery into a unified poetic structure.

Uncle Jerry notes the couplet rhymes in the bridge: 'terrace/embarrassed, bed/dead' and then the cascade 'legendary, momentary, unnecessary, stay buried.' He says he loves 'that cascade of rhyme.'

The rhyme scheme in the bridge tightens the poem's argument by binding its key terms, the legendary becomes momentary becomes unnecessary, in an accelerating cascade of disillusionment.

Angela & Uncle Jerry identify a consistent rhyme scheme throughout the song. Uncle Jerry maps it as ABCB quatrain rhyme in the verses (wiser/afternoons/people/room), with the pre-chorus following a DDDE FFFE pattern (devices/vices/crisis/time, dreaming/leaving/scheming/time). He notes this remains fairly consistent throughout the work.

The consistent rhyme scheme provides poetic structure to what is otherwise a deeply self-deprecating, confessional piece, lending it formal strength that Uncle Jerry identifies as one of the reasons Taylor chose it for the Songwriters Hall of Fame submission.

Uncle Jerry discusses the rhyme scheme in detail, identifying it as AABB couplets: 'megaphone, alone, pyro, blow, and then you go to the pre-chorus, me, melancholy, and then myself and I lit up sky. So CCDD so she's working with rhyme couplets.' He calls this 'one of the most strictly rhymed and metered poems that I've seen her write' and suggests it may be homage to Shakespeare or the influence of co-writers Max Martin and Shellback.

The strict rhyme scheme contributes to the song's narrative formality, possibly as homage to the Shakespearean source material, and creates the tight pop structure that makes the song so singable.

Uncle Jerry identifies and traces the rhyme scheme across the song. In the first two verses and choruses: cold/gold, liquor/bigger, family/family, grain/rain, rhyming couplets that start off every stanza. In the final chorus he maps the seven-line stanza's interlocking scheme: liquor/bigger (AA), surrounded/drowning (BB), scandals/cancelled (CC), trigger (back to A). He calls the seven-line stanza's rounded rhyme 'really nice, cohesive.'

The rhyme scheme contributes to singability and poetic structure, with the final chorus's more complex interlocking pattern enacting the escalation and control of the speaker's final assertion of power.

“You look like Clara Bow In this light, remarkable All your life, did you know You'd be picked like a rose?”

Angela & Uncle Jerry identify that verse one uses alliterative/assonant rhyme (Bow/remarkable/know/rose), not exact rhyme but vowel rhyme between 'no' and 'rose.' Uncle Jerry notes the rhyme scheme is AA throughout, the same rhyme repeating at the end of every line, and argues the rhyming is symbolic: the artificial, sing-song quality of perfect rhyme reflects the rehearsed, rote pitch of the talent scout, the same speech given decade after decade. Angela builds on this, noting that unlike mirrorball (which was conversational and unrhymed because the speaker was authentic), here the speakers are talent agents delivering rehearsed lines, so the rhyme is deliberately artificial and formulaic.

The similitude of rhyme across verses enacts the cyclical, unchanging demands of celebrity — generation after generation, the same pitch, the same requirements, the same artificial promises delivered in the same sing-song pattern.

Uncle Jerry identifies the rhyme scheme of verse one as AAB, CCB, 'mist, rift' (AA), 'away' (B), 'hill, chill' (CC), then 'safe' rhyming back with 'away' through shared vowel sound (B). He describes this as 'an interesting rhyme scheme' and 'nice work.' He later confirms the same rhyme scheme appears in verse two ('out, about, Heath / used to, free') and identifies 'interlocking rhyme' in the bridge ('ship, it, grip, resentment / scared, affair, aired, there') across two quatrains, plus rhymed couplets in the chorus ('me, tragedy / London, someone').

The interlocking rhyme scheme creates a sense of structural cohesion that mirrors the speaker's attempt to hold the relationship together, while the consistent return to the B rhyme creates a pattern of return that echoes the song's recursive emotional logic.

Angela & Uncle Jerry extensively discuss the rhyme scheme throughout the song. Uncle Jerry identifies the internal rhymes in verse 1 (Peter/Cedar, timing/beguiling/trying/lying), the end rhymes in the chorus (deep/keep/keep), the verse 2 rhyme pattern (Reader/Stealer/Peter/Easier, then Stream/Moon with galaxies/me creating an A-B-C-A-B-C pattern with 'subtle, minute shifts of vowel sounds'), slant rhyme in the pre-chorus (around/now), and the locked-in rhymes of the bridge (burn/return/learn/earned). After hearing the song, Uncle Jerry praises the rhymes as 'subtle and perfect.'

The sophisticated, multi-layered rhyme scheme, combining internal rhyme, slant rhyme, and end rhyme, creates the musicality that Angela & Uncle Jerry praise as central to the poem's beauty and emotional impact.

Uncle Jerry discusses the rhyme scheme across the song multiple times. In the first verse: 'throttle and bottle, written and bitten. She doesn't do it in every line, but she does it often enough that she's sort of playing with rhyme. There's no consistent rhythmic pattern.' In the bridge he traces the rhyming unity: 'unstable, table, faith, weight, fate, soulmates, grage', noting the A-sound that 'runs through every one of those... not always in the same way and not always with the same consonant. So sometimes they feel like less like true rhyme and more like assonance.' In the chorus he notes: 'knees, prophecy, money, company, me, prophecy, prophecy.'

The varied rhyme scheme, mixing true rhyme with assonance, creates a sense of persistent sonic unity beneath the surface, echoing the speaker's search for coherence in a life that feels chaotic.

Angela & Uncle Jerry identify an interlocking rhyme scheme in the first verse: 'No, A, bones, B, land, C, snow, back to A, glow, A, grand, C.' Uncle Jerry calls it an 'interlock rhyme scheme' and says 'it's very beautiful,' noting that she uses rhyme as one of the key tools linking sound together throughout the poem.

The interlocking rhyme scheme creates a sense of entanglement and interconnection that mirrors the tangled, invasive nature of ivy and the intertwined lives of the lovers.

Angela & Uncle Jerry identify a heavy AAAA rhyme scheme in the first verse (door, more, sure, before) and then note the shift to a different rhyme pattern in the chorus (memory, time, mine, bedsheets, wine, mine, with time/mine/wine/mine). Uncle Jerry observes that the 'or' sound in the first verse is an elongated sound that stretches things out, creating a dreamy, uncertain quality, while the 'I' sounds in the chorus are 'more pointed,' creating a sharper, more definitive quality. He interprets this shift as matching the emotional content, the dreamy whispered memories of the verse versus the more certain realization of loss in the chorus.

The rhyme scheme shift from elongated 'or' sounds to pointed 'I' sounds mirrors the emotional arc from dreamy, uncertain adolescent memory to the sharper realization that the relationship was never truly hers.

Angela & Uncle Jerry trace the rhyme scheme across the entire song, identifying it as a pervasive and deliberate element. Uncle Jerry maps verse 1 as A, B, B (me, clones, phones), the chorus as C, D, C, D (die, you, cry, muse), and verse 2 as E, F, G, F (skin, hurt, sleaze, worth). He also notes the bridge rhymes (prose/feet/years/here and ground/tweet/pools/grief, with feet/tweet/grief clustering together). Uncle Jerry identifies this consistent rhyme scheme as a hallmark of Romanticism and argues she is writing a neo-Romantic poem.

The pervasive rhyme scheme is itself a Romantic technique, the Lake Poets were consistent with rhyme, so the form enacts the poem's thematic alignment with Romanticism.

“Because I dropped your hand while dancing Left you out there standing Crestfallen on the landing”

Uncle Jerry notes the rhyme scheme of the chorus: 'dancing, standing, landing', identifying it as rhythmical and rhyming. He highlights how the rhythmic and rhyming elements work together to create the chorus's effect.

The tight rhyme scheme in the chorus creates a lockstep quality that Uncle Jerry later connects to the feeling of social expectation, 'this is what you're supposed to do.'

Uncle Jerry analyzes the rhyme scheme across the song, noting that in the verses the rhyme is 'subtle and a little bit withdrawn', sunny/money rhyme, goes/goes, house/loud as slant rhyme, down as another slant. In the chorus, dynasty/been/scene provide rhyme. He contrasts this looser rhyme approach with the tighter pop rhyme of Blank Space and 1989, attributing it to the folklore album's freer, non-pop-radio-friendly style.

The withdrawn, slant-heavy rhyme scheme matches the song's narrative and biographical mode, less pop artifice, more storytelling freedom, reflecting the folklore album's overall shift toward looser poetic structure.

Angela & Uncle Jerry explicitly discuss the absence of a consistent rhyme scheme in the song. Uncle Jerry states: 'there's literally no consistent rhyme scheme in this poem' and notes that 'the poem is driven by the imagery and by the voice of the mirror ball itself.' He observes that the bridge introduces some rhyme (down/clowns) but that the verses and choruses operate without end-rhyme patterning. He argues this is a deliberate choice: 'we've almost removed one poetic element from the picture in order to focus on other elements.'

The deliberate absence of consistent rhyme scheme allows the imagery and voice to dominate, reinforcing the conversational intimacy of the mirrorball's address and keeping the focus on the visual and thematic content rather than sonic patterning.

Uncle Jerry analyzes the chorus rhyme scheme in detail, identifying it as an interlocking couplet pattern: car/far (AA), mystery/me (BB), car/heart (AA), leave/me (BB). He calls it 'this really nice couplet, interlocking rhyme scheme' and praises it as 'poetically good work.'

The tight, interlocking rhyme scheme gives the chorus its driving, propulsive quality that mirrors the momentum of the getaway car itself.

Uncle Jerry analyses the rhyme scheme of the quatrains: 'party, lobby, floor, before' as roughly AABB, and in the chorus 'page, away, midnight, day' where 'away and day rhyme, page and midnight's not so much.' He identifies some internal rhyme and notes the quatrain setup makes it look like 'a very conventional type of poem.'

The rhyme scheme contributes to the song's conventional, accessible feel, the near-rhymes and partial rhyme patterns give it a natural, conversational quality while maintaining poetic structure.

Angela & Uncle Jerry note the rhyme scheme together. Uncle Jerry says 'the letters better ruin doing right bathroom classroom. So yeah, if you're counting it's it's all couplets a a b b c c d d.' Angela notices it too: 'I'm noticing the line the rhyme scheme now, too.' Uncle Jerry confirms: 'nice, nice couplets.'

The couplet rhyme scheme provides the tight, driving structure appropriate for a dance/club song while maintaining lyrical craft.

Angela & Uncle Jerry identify the rhyme scheme as AABB, Uncle Jerry notes 'it's obviously a rhymed couplet... it rhymes worst and thirst... Fourth, anymore. So the OR sound.' He praises it as 'a very mature rhyme scheme' because 'Forth and Anymore have a kind of a slant rhyme with an OR sound, and the OR sound in Anymore is kind of hidden inside the two syllable word or three syllable word.' He calls it 'really nice poetic work on her part with the rhyme scheme.'

The mature, interlocking rhyme scheme with slant rhymes gives the song poetic sophistication beyond a simple nursery rhyme quality.

Angela & Uncle Jerry discuss the rhyme scheme of the song, noting it follows a fairly consistent pattern (a, b, a, c in the first verse) with some variation. Uncle Jerry identifies the scheme as contributing to the sing-songy quality of the work.

The consistent rhyme scheme reinforces the carnival-barker, pop-hit quality of the song, supporting the satiric tone and the faux-shallow persona the speaker is selling.

Uncle Jerry identifies the same intermittent rhyme scheme in the original version but notes he is 'a little bothered by the inconsistent rhyme elements', giving it a slightly lower lyrical strength score (93) compared to the 10-minute version (99) partly for this reason.

The less consistent rhyme scheme in the shorter version contributes to Uncle Jerry's sense that the original is a more sanitized, less fully realized work.

Uncle Jerry conducts a detailed analysis of the chorus rhyme scheme, marking it as ABABCC, 'ending' (A), 'day' (B), 'defending' (A), 'say' (B), 'through' (C), 'you' (C). He notes this is a 'redundant rhyme scheme' and identifies it as a classical pattern called a 'sustain' (six-line stanza rhyming ABABCC). He further researched and found 83 poems in the Victorian Periodical Review using the same pattern, including works by George Meredith, Thomas Hardy, and Alfred Lord Tennyson.

The classical ABABCC rhyme scheme gives the chorus structural formality and links Taylor's early songwriting to a long tradition of English-language poetry, demonstrating deliberate craft even in her juvenile work.

Uncle Jerry notes the rhyme and repetition link between 'wild boy' and 'wild joy' in the bridge, calling it 'nice poetics' with 'the rhyme, the repetition link.'

The rhyme between 'wild boy' and 'wild joy' sonically binds the lover to the feeling he produces, making the boy and the emotion inseparable.

Angela & Uncle Jerry discuss the verse form as a dizain (ten-line stanza) and note the rhyme scheme. Uncle Jerry says: 'usually they're rhymed a b a b b c c d c d. And this is not rhymed that way. We've got habit, past, it, trash, last, so past and last do rhyme, and then haunted, ghosts, couples, no, no comes close to those ghosts, but don't. We do rhyme some, but not like a typical dizain.'

The loose, non-standard rhyme scheme contributes to the casual, conversational, pop-driven tone of the song.

Uncle Jerry notes the rhyme of 'heartbroken' and 'unspoken' in verse two: 'So she's she. This is a funny line. My longings stay unspoken. So it's a really nice rhyme. Unspoken and heartbroken.'

The rhyme binds the speaker's emotional state (heartbroken) to her inability to express it (unspoken), sonically linking cause and effect.

“We could call it even Even though I'm leaving”

Uncle Jerry identifies internal rhyme in the bridge, 'we could call it even even though I'm leaving', noting the even/leaving sound pattern. He says 'obviously internal rhyme.'

The internal rhyme binds the two contrasting ideas (calling it even and leaving) together sonically, mirroring how the speaker is trying to hold both realities at once.

“Standing in your cardigan Kissin' in my car again”

Uncle Jerry notes that rhyming one word ('cardigan') with two words ('car again') is something 'you ought to stop and really think about.' He finds it notable, connecting it to the earlier episode where they discussed 'jackals and hackles', though he doesn't condemn it. The rhyme scheme choice is characteristic of the song's overall simplicity.

The cardigan/car again rhyme links the song's outro to the broader trilogy, 'cardigan' connects to the title and central motif of the third song in the triangle, while the simplicity of the rhyme is consistent with James's adolescent voice.

“What died didn't stay dead What died didn't stay dead You're alive, you're alive in my head”

Uncle Jerry notes 'I didn't mention the rhyme between dead and head' when discussing the chorus, explicitly identifying the end-rhyme pairing.

The rhyme between 'dead' and 'head' sonically connects death to the mind, the place where Marjorie continues to live, reinforcing the song's argument that memory is the mechanism by which the dead survive.

“But I got tired of waiting Wondering if you were ever coming around My faith in you was fading When I met you on the outskirts of town and I said”

Angela & Uncle Jerry note internal rhyme in the bridge, 'around' and 'town,' and 'waiting' and 'fading.' Uncle Jerry says 'we have a little internal rhyme going on' and Angela agrees it's nice. However, he notes that the rhyming throughout the song is not consistent and there is not a consistent metrical pattern, contrasting it unfavorably with the 'really nice rhyming patterns' and modulation of metre in Ophelia.

The internal rhyme in the bridge provides a brief musical cohesion at the song's emotional turning point, the moment of doubt before the resolution, though the inconsistency of rhyme throughout the song is identified as a marker of its formative quality.