Every line by the British Admiral in "Please Hello" from "Pacific Overtures
Not only is it full of brilliant quadruple rhymes, but every line in each quatrain also consists of an internal rhyme.
"Hello, I come with letters from Her Majesty Victoria Who, learning how you're trading now, sang "Hallelujah, Gloria!" And sent me to convey to you her positive euphoria As well as little gifts from Britain's various emporia."
"Her letters do contain a few proposals to your Emperor Which if, of course, he won't endorse, will put in her in a temper or, More happily, should he agree, will serve to keep her placid, or At least till I am followed by a permanent ambassador"
"Her Majesty considers the arrangements to be tentative Until we ship a proper diplomatic representative. We don't foresee that you will be the least bit argumentative, So please ignore the man-of-war we brought as a preventative."
"Great Britain wishes her position clear and indisputable: We're not amused at being used and therefore stand immutable. And though you Japs are foxy chaps and damnably inscrutable Reviewing it from where we sit, the facts are irrefutable"
"The British feel these latest dealings verge on immorality. The element of precedent imperils our neutrality. We're rather vexed, your giving extraterritoriality. We must insist you offer this to every nationality!"
"One moment, please, I think that these assure us exclusivity For Western ports and other sorts of maritime activity, And if you mean to intervene, as is the Dutch proclivity, We'll blow you nits to little bits, with suitable festivity. "
But compare it to "Ladies Who Lunch" or the original lyric to "We're Gonna Be Alright", both of which are just as full of internal rhyme without calling unnecessary attention.
(I.e., I'm acknowledging that the rhyming of "Please Hello" is a deliberate and skillful spoof of Gilbert, but arguing that even greater skill was require to do the same thing less intrusively in other songs.)
***
And while I'm sounding cranky (I'm not, really; I'm just saying), I think "It's harder than a matador coercin' a bull" is far worse than anything in "I Feel Pretty", a lyric which Sondheim allowed Sheldon Harnick to ruin for him. I realize "You Could Drive a Person Crazy" is a comment song and doesn't have to follow strict rules of character, but the "bull" line is virtually incomprehensible in the theater (unless you already know it from the recording). The problem is that the listener needs the image of a matador coercing (not the verb anyone would use) a bull to understand "to try to get you off of your rump"; yet the listener also needs the rump image to understand the coercing. The lyric just goes by too fast to do all those calculations on first hearing.
Quite uncharacteristic for Sondheim, if you ask me.
"i feel dizzy, i feel sunny, i feel fizzy and funny and fine"
"though you may not agree today, in time, mais oui, we may"
"Which do you pick: where you're safe, out of sight and yourself but where everything's wrong? or where everything's right and you know that you'll never belong?"
"it's a very short road from the pinch and the punch to the paunch and the pouch and the pension. it's a very short road to the ten thousandth lunch and the belch and the grouch and the sigh"
"Mama said: honey, mustn't be blue. it's not so much do what you like as it is that you like what you do."
"Contentment, it seems, simply happens. It appears accompanied by no bravos and no tears."
I fear that the lyrics may not be exactly as I remember them (and frequently sing to myself), but it doesn't change the brilliance of the precise lyrics. Here goes:
SONDHEIM:
Lucy is juicy but terribly drab
Jessie is dressy but cold as a slab
Jessie wants to be Lucy
Lucy wants to be Jessie
Thats the sorrowful precis
Its very messy
Wear your hair down and a flower
Don't use make-up, dress in white
She'll grow older by the hour
And be hopelessly shattered by Saturday night
That's the puddle where the poodle did the piddle
It's you for me
And me for you
We'll muddle through
Whatever we do
NON-SONDHEIM:
The entire song 'You're the Top'...if I had to single out a segment:
What we have here is an ethical dilemma 'Less I help him get the mask removed he doesn't have a prayer True the gun was never fired But the way events transpired I could finish him with simple laissez faire
And from Reefer Madness: (...there are so many good ones in Reefer Madness!)
The wafers now don't taste so great They won't transubstantiate
My favorite lyricist was Lorenz Hart and Babes in Arms may have been his greatest show. There are two many beautiful rhymes in "My Funny Valentine" to quote. In the song "Way Out West," I've always liked:
Those 'forty niners
Who would stake a claim were hearty
I'll join the diners
And I'll claim a steak at Sardi!
In A Connecticut Yankee, "To Keep My Love Alive" is filled with brilliant rhymes. For example:
Sir Thomas played the harp, I cussed the thing
I crowned him with the harp to bust the thing
And now he plays where harps are just the thing
Other favorites:
Sondheim/West Side Story: I Feel Pretty (already mentioned)
"I was unwise with eyes unable to see" gets me every time, but now that it's been mentioned, "pneumonia / phone ya" is surely the best rhyme ever written, period.
"We've no time to sit and dither, While her wither's wither with her, and no one keeps a cow for a friend." from Into the Woods, and
And from A Little Night Music -
"It's a very short road From the pinch and the punch To the paunch and the pouch and the pension It's a very short road To the ten thousandth lunch And the belch and the grouch and the sigh"
As Gaveston pointed out above, Please Hello from Pacific Overtures is a deliberate, intentional and obvious parody of Gilbert and Sullivan.
Gilbert is my favorite lyricist, followed closely by Hart, Porter, Hammerstein, Carilyn Leigh, Ira Gershwin, and others, not necessarily in that order.
One of my favorite clever lyrics is from Sunday in the Park with George:
What's the muddle in the middle?
That's the puddle where the poodle did the piddle.
The internal rhymes are wonderful in and of themselves but in context, the self-consciousness draws attention to itself and takes you right of the show, which I hate. It should have been cut.
Since this has fast turned into the thread of "Why Steve is a Better Lyricist than I Am," I'm gonna contribute one that's not from him.
The whole of "You've Got Possibilities" from It's a Bird, It's a Plane, It's Superman is one of my favorite lyrics of all time. I would do that show JUST so I could sing the song.