Forget the end of the poetic line. Don't look for a conventional rhyme or accent at the end of each line as is common in song lyrics; look instead for other rhymes or accents that fall within the lines. Sometimes you get two within one line. Use them and slow the verse down. Or sometimes the rhyme occurs across two lines but fall in the middle of each. That's good.
Musical phrase can allow for this, in fact it can stitch phrases together that would be otherwise boring or unsteady in the hands of the inexperienced performer.
In both of these, rhythm is king. It will rule them all and melody will only seek to adorn the rhythmic phrase. Unsupported by this, melody will die alone. Unrequited.
as Ezra Pound described composing poetry - to compose in the sequence of the musical phrase, not in sequence of a metronome.poetry at it's best (& there are piled reams of bad poetry out there) is an attempt to convey emotion via the natural rhythms of people speaking, and by the repetition or juxtaposition of certain sounds. roll from line to line sometimes slowing or even stopping, other times racing ahead, be aware of the rhythm created by hard or soft consonants and always always always follow the tone of the vowels.
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