Okay Jim. I found a Billy Joel lyric that I always admired: “We Didn’t Start the Fire.” Now, I’d like to know how well these first few lines of that lyric match. I think they do, of course, even though it’s just a list and not conversational. But it illustrates it, right? The matching rhythmic flow?

HARRY Truman, DORIS Day, RED China, JOHNnie Ray
SOUTH Pacific, WALTer Winchell, JOE DiMAGgiO

JOE McCarthy, RICHard Nixon, STUDEbaker, TELEvision
NORTH Korea, SOUTH Korea, MARIlyn MonROE

That’s easy to see. It all flows very nicely, even though I would NEVER think that Red China and Studebaker have the same "rhythm!" But these mixed metered ones that you say work, Mark. I tried to accent them to see how they work.

Some NIGHTS he'd COME in THROUGH the OLD bay WINdow
sarCAStic SMILE beFORE it TURNed to STONE

His EYES were HOLDing back great WAVES of ANGer
She STOOD aWHILE, but IT was TIME to GO

How far off am I? It seems like the top two lines are off because of the “come in” unless “come in” was sung as one word. (If I was writing that, I’d probably change it!) LOL But I can see how a singer could compensate for that.

I’d like to think I’m aware of the rhythmic matching when writing....those little percussion solos...yeah, I see that. All writers should be. But I also think I wouldn’t know for sure if something was off just by the words until the music was applied…cuz the singer can phrase it and sing the little words to accommodate for that, no? I think as words only, you’re limited to some extent. Some lines are more obvious than others to flag!

A musician must make music, an artist must paint, a poet must write,
if he is to be ultimately at peace with himself. What a man can be,
he must be. -- Abraham Maslow, American Psychologist