This song was in Pat Pattison's book 'Writing Better Lyrics' and is one of my favorites. It's on iTunes if you want to buy it. The images it draws so vividly are wonderful. AND this is a great example of how CHORUS is seen differently after each verse is sung - basically verse frames chorus.

I hope Beth doesn't mind me printing it here for us to learn by.

Child Again by Beth Neilsen Chapman


She's wheeled into the hallway
Till the sun moves down the floor
Little squares of daylight
Like a hundred times before

She's taken to the garden
For the later afternoon
Just before her dinner
They return her to her room

CHORUS:
And inside her mind
She is running
She is running in the summer wind
Inside her mind
She is running in the summer wind
Like a child again


The family comes on Sunday
And they hover for awhile
They fill her room with chatter
And they form a line of smiles

Children of her children
Bringing babies of their own
Sometimes she remembers
Then her mama calls her home

CHORUS:
And inside her mind
She is running
She is running in the summer wind
Inside her mind
She is running in the summer wind
Like a child again


Playmate, come out and play with me
(It's raining, it's poring, the old man is snoring)
And bring your dollies three
(Bumped his head on the edge of the bed)
Climb up my apple tree
(Never got up in the morning)
Slide down my rain barrel
(Rain, rain, go away)
Into my cellar door
(Come again another day)
And we'll be jolly friends
(Little Johnny wants to play)
Forevermore
(Some more)

And inside her mind
She is running
She is running in the summer wind
Like a child again


That last part where the two nursury rhymes are sung against each other (i.e. at the same time) is just simply GREAT writing. The chords are great, she takes time to modulate the song to different keys and basically the music is just a perfect fit to these lyrics.

The only small thing i would have changed is to use less synthy sounding instruments in the verses - although the keys really sonically fit the 'running in the wind' chorus part.

Anyway, check it out!