whereisyourredscaaahf:

knee-breeches:

real talk I want to know how exactly Lin-Manuel Miranda figured out that the words “southern,” “motherfuckin” and “democratic-republicans” go so perfectly together

it’s a good, fun mix of things. you get three trochees in a row. then the three disyllabic phrases get doubled (and double timed) into two tetrasyllabic words that complete a line of pentameter. to break this down.

a trochee is a two syllable (disyllabic) word that gives us a stressed syllable, then an unstressed one.

southern, mother, fuckin’

three in a row is an emphatic treat for the ear, especially because english tends to flow better with the more common iambs (unstressed, stressed, disyllabic). this alteration in what we expect is great for a phrase as crass as this one. 

speaking of crass alterations. this trio is also really great and perfect because you get some good assonance between the three words as well as an unexpected break (crass alteration!!!) on “fuckin’”. The first syllable of all three words have a nice “uh” sound: sou-, mo-, and fu-. Then, looking at the second syllable of the three words, you get nice assonance on “-thern” and “-ther” (it’s not just assonance, let’s just call it a slant rhyme at this point), only for the almost perfect trio to be broken by “-ckin’.” We already associate “fuckin’” with some unruly emphasis and for a near perfect trio of assonant syllables to be broken by this word provides for a personal id-y satisfaction, I’m sure. 

this unexpected break is followed immediately by a change in the foot. we double from disyllabics to tetrasyllabics. i know a lot less about meter and rhythm for music than i do poetry, but i think there’s also a syncopation that happens with the first three trochees. the strong beat of music comes on the unstressed syllable which makes for a nice groove. again, because i don’t know music as well, i can’t say if this is a function of the syncopated rhythm or just a stroke of luck and genius hand in hand, but in spite of this sing song-y switching off of the stressed syllable on the disyllabic slant rhymes with the strong beat, the stressed syllables of the tetrasyllabic words somehow land on the strong beats. 

democratic, republicans

so accompanying this shift from disyllabic words to tetrasyllabic words is not only a change in rhythm from what i believe are some groovy syncopated eighth(?) notes to straight sixteenth notes, but also a resolving of lyrical syncopation with the stressed syllable returning to the beat. Throw in measured out rhyming between the two “-ic-”s following the stressed beat and you get a good resolution. 

so, why it sounds perfect together? got you covered.

how he found this out? he’s a genius.