Select a song that you like and scan the lyrics, noting the rhyme scheme and meter. Then, reflect on and respond to the following questions: What rhyme scheme and meter do the lyrics have? Is it a set meter, or does it vary?
How do you think the song type (rap, hip-hop, pop, country, etc.) influences the kind of meter it has?
Would you expect to find a similar rhyme scheme and meter in other songs in this genre?
If you recited the song lyrics as you would a poem, would it have the same rhythm and meter as it does as a song?
Does putting the lyrics to the musical arrangement alter the spoken rhythm of the words?

Read the excerpt below from the poem "exile" by julia alvarez and answer the question that follows. i let myself lie back in deep waters, my arms out like jesus' on his cross, and instead of sinking down like i'd always done, magically, that night, i could stay up, floating out past the driveway, past the gates, in the black ford, papi grim at the wheel, winding through the back roads, stroke by difficult stroke, out on the highway, heading toward the coast. which literary device is used in the comparison between the speaker's experience of fleeing the country and floating in the ocean? i let myself lie back in deep waters, my arms out like jesus' on his cross, and instead of sinking down like i'd always done, magically, that night, i could stay up, extended metaphor symbolism simile theme