Now by rhythm I do not mean rhyme, nor metre, nor regularity.  It has nothing necessarily to do with poetic measures nor with precision of rhymes.  Let me attempt to convey what I mean by saying that the rhythm of a song is, as Irving Berlin said, the swing.  To the swing of a song everything in it contributes.  Perhaps it will be clearer when I say that rhythm is compounded of the exactness with which the words clothe the idea and with which the music clothes the words, and the fineness with which both words and music fit the emotion.  Rhythm is singleness of effect.  Yet rhythm is more—­it is singleness of effect plus a sort of hypnotic fascination.

And here we must rest as nearly content as we can, for the final effect of any work of art does not admit of dissection.  I have shown you some of the elements which contribute to making a popular song popular, and in the next chapter we shall see still others which are best discussed in the direct application of the writing, but even the most careful exposition must halt at the heart of the mystery of art.  The soul of a song defies analysis.

9.  Where the “Punch” in the Lyric is Placed

Just as it is necessary for a popular song to have a punch somewhere in its music, so it must come somewhere in its lyric.  Just what a lyrical punch is may be seen in the chorus of “The Trail of the Lonesome Pine.”

In the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia,
On the trail of the lonesome pine,
In the pale moonshine our hearts entwine,
Where she carved her name and I carved mine,
Oh, June, like the mountains I’m blue,
Like the pine, I am lonesome for you!
In the Blue Ridge mountains of Virginia,
On the trail of the lonesome pine.

The underlined words are plainly the punch lines of this famous song—­the most attractive lines of the whole lyric.  Note where they are placed—­in the chorus, and next to the last lines.  Read the chorus of “My Little Dream Girl” and you will find a similar example of punch lines: 

I’d sigh for,
I’d cry for, sweet dreams forever,
My little dream girl, good night.

These, also, are placed next to the last lines of the chorus.

The punch lines of “When it Strikes Home,” are found in

And when you hear of brave boys dying,
You may not care, they’re not your own,
But just suppose you lost your loved one
That is the time when it strikes home.

Here the punch is placed at the very end of the chorus.

Now test every song on your piano by this laboratory method.  You will find that while there may be punch lines at the end of the verses there are nearly always punch lines at the end of the chorus.  There must be a reason for this similarity in all these popular songs.  And the reason is this:  The emphatic parts of a sentence are the beginning and end.  The emphatic part of a paragraph is