We applaud singer
Deborah Harry for sidestepping one of the most tiresome, lazy, near-rhyme clichés to mar pop music. Instead of imperfectly rhyming "girl" and "world,"
Harry boldly changes sex for a "boy / world" couplet:
Daybreak comes alive when I'm with you, boy.
Too late. Can't survive without you in my world.
Falling down like rain, I hear the thunder.
I've thrown it all away to keep from going under.
—"
I Can See Clearly"
(We acknowledge that "girl/world" is an echo of "mother earth," just as "man/hand" echoes the Spanish and Italian "mano," meaning "hand." Regardless of the merits of
half rhymes, "girl/world" and "man/hand" are contemptibly overused.)
