On Unrhymed Lyrics in Irregular Rhythms

Extract

I have been asked from time to time, whenever I published unrhymed lyrics, how I came to designate such verse as lyric. The last time this happened was in connection with my Deutsche Satiren (German Satires). The question is justified, because even when lyrics abandon rhyme they generally have at least a fixed rhythm. Many of my recent lyric pieces show neither rhyme nor regularly fixed rhythm. The reason I call them lyric is that, although they do not have a regular rhythm, they do have rhythm—shifting, syncopated, gestural.

My first book of poems contained for the most part only songs and ballads, and the verse forms are comparatively regular. Most of them were supposed to be sung, and in the simplest fashion — I myself was the composer. Only one poem was unrhymed, and its rhythm was regular. On the other hand, nearly all the rhymed poems had irregular rhythms.