Rhyme can be important to lyrics in all kinds of ways - everything from humour to ease of memorization to providing formal restrictions that paradoxically lead to creativity. But today I'd like to write about a song lyric that deliberately doesn't rhyme. "Moonlight in Vermont", by Karl Suessdorf and John Blackburn, had always puzzled me because of how its words flow perfectly without the use of any of the various types of rhyme (Wikipedia lists about fifteen, by the way). And so I took another look at the lyrics, and then I realized that there was indeed a form to them which I hadn't noticed before - the three verses are all haikus. Have a look:

Pennies in a stream

Falling leaves, a sycamore

Moonlight in Vermont

Icy finger-waves

Ski trails on a mountainside

Snowlight in Vermont

Telegraph cables, they sing down the highway

And travel each bend in the road

People who meet in this romantic setting

Are so hypnotized by the lovely...

Ev'ning summer breeze

Warbling of a meadowlark

Moonlight in Vermont

Telegraph cables, how they sing down the highway

And they travel each bend in the road

People who meet in this romantic setting

Are so hypnotized by the lovely...

Ev'ning summer breeze

The warbling of a meadowlark

Moonlight in Vermont

Why the haiku form is so powerful is another interesting question, but that'll be for another day. For now, here is Frank Sinatra's version from Come Fly with Me (1958), with a glistening arrangement by Billy May: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kbrPen0tqxM.

And here is an instrumental version by the great Nat King Cole trio, from which Bill Evans fans will be able to clearly hear the influence that Cole had on Evans' playing: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uKB_RpYvDNM&feature=related