The Music of Form

I really like Elbow’s analogy of writing and music, the two seem to have a lot more in common than one would assume.  Scholarship about comics often makes a similar comparison between the structure and layout of comics as being musical in nature, with a rhythm and melody that helps to unify seemingly dissociated elements.  It seems, however, that melody and rhythm would be rather difficult skills to teach composition students.  A piece of writing that is very easy and enjoyable to read has had a lot of effort and work put into it – and sometimes it seems that this kind of writing comes naturally for some and not so much for others.  How can we teach this to our students?  Perhaps using poetry in the composition classroom, or even using song lyrics and pieces of music as examples could help to illustrate the concept.