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Originally Posted by Fretsource
I think you might be miscounting that last line Steve. Counting from the first beat, every line has TEN syllables.
Line four is shorter only because it starts exactly on the first beat with no pickup notes
while lines 1 - 3 also have a pick up note or two before the first beat.
But to compare them, it's necessary to count them ALL from the first beat - not the pick up notes
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That depends on what you consider the pickup notes.
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Originally Posted by lcjones
Line 1) When the long days are shortened by summer's last call
Line 2) And the maple trees blush with the coming of fall
Line 3) As evenings cool down breathing autumn's sweet air
Line 4) We'll be as warm as two.... hearts in good care
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I agree that if we want to count we could take it from what we see as the downbeat. But unless we have an audio example (and, by the way, if we did, then that's only one musical interpretation of the lyric), we have no real way of knowing. I take it you're considering
When the of Line 1, and
And the of Line 2, and
As in Line 3 as the pickup notes. Then why aren't you considering the
We'll be as in Line 4 as pickup notes? That would follow.
But what you say makes sense. You don't have to have pickup notes in Line 4. It would work ok if you didn't. I guess that's a part of my point. We don't know this. To my mind it seems natural that the
We'll be as are pickup notes just as the first one, two or three syllables/words are in the previous lines. Or not. Those words/syllables may not have been considered as 'pre-downbeat' notes.
I'm not saying that there should be strict syllable counting. I'm saying that writers should be aware of them. It's not a bad thing, and there's artistic license, but it's obvious to me that Line 4 falls short of the counting of the previous three lines, unless you invoke artistic license and say that there are no pickup notes.