Originally Posted by DrPangloss

My point being that the stress in the word "city" lands on the first syllable, where the rhyming portion of the word lands on the second. If the word is pronounced properly (SIT-ee) then it doesn't rhyme. If the stress is moved to the second syllable (as you compared to the word "rhapsody") then the word is not being pronounced correctly, and there's more room for error in understanding the lyric. No one pronounces the word "si-TEE." Bad scansion will pull the audience out of the song if they have to stop and think about what the word was rather than just listen.

I think scansion is one of the most important things in lyric writing, because without it, the audience can't understand what you're saying.