Originally Posted by ColmT

Lyrics aren't poetry! Poetic lyrics have a structured meteor - song lyrics don't or at least don't necessarily. Song lyrics match the meter of the music NOT the meter of the lyrics!


A lyric and a melody need to match. It doesn't matter which comes first, but they do need to match. I've often composed melodies to match an already written lyric. It works that way too.

There is a meter to everything ever spoken or sung. It doesn't always stick to constant iambic meter ("the DOOR was CLOSED for DAYS and DAYS") or trochaic ("PLEASE get DOWN you STUpid CAT!"), but there is indeed a metric structure to the melody, some sort of rhythmic pattern that will most likely repeat, and the "weight" of the words come into play when the lyric and melody are matched. So it really is the same work that poets might do, matching words to a rhythmic structure.

Learning the classic poetic structures is actually of great benefit to a lyricist.

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