Dante’s thought tends to conclude at the end of each tercet… [which] clearly determines the “pace” of the writing; i.e., the rate at which it reveals itself to the reader.
-Inferno translator John Ciardi
We writers tend to conclude our thoughts at the ends of significant sections such as sentences, paragraphs, stanzas, or verses. Dante chose to write his masterpiece Inferno using three-line stanzas (tercets), and as John Ciardi points out above, this gives Inferno a distinct pacing.
Many songwriters instinctually use stanzas when they write, too—even though there’s no real reason to. You can’t hear a stanza break.
I’ve routinely divided verse sections into two stanzas each, but until recently I wasn’t conscious of why I do that. When I read the above quote from John Ciardi, it finally hit me: a stanza break may not be audible while singing, but it does allow the lyricist to break a song down into manageable segments.
The end of a stanza signals the end of a thought, and listeners can feel this underlying rhythm of ideas in a well-structured song–in the finished product, usually the end of a stanza is coupled with the end of a musical phrase.
Change the number of lines per stanza and watch what happens.
This will affect the pace at which your thoughts develop in a lyric. If you’re used to wriing four or eight lines per stanza, try an unusual number: three, five, six, seven. This can also bring dramatic results when you add or subtract lines from a song that you’ve already been working on for a while.
This is not just technical tinkering. Exploring different stanza lengths will prompt you to think and write differently: it will leverage you out of accustomed habits, force you to alter your usual rhyme schemes, and generally encourage you to write bold new material. Try it!
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