I listened to some Decemberists albums this morning, including The King Is Dead. I've always liked the lines "and you won't make a dime / on this gray granite mountain mine" in "Rox in the Box," but listening to the song this time, I realized why I like it.
First, there's the alliteration between gray and granite and between mountain and mine, which somehow I had never noticed. Apparently, I'm really bad at recognizing alliteration if it isn't written.
Second, the rhythm of the line is engaging. Despite having been an English major, I know virtually nothing about meter and stressed syllables and all that, so I can't actually explain the rhythm of this line, but I like it nonetheless.
