> it had been so long since he had a crush ---this is a man who's balding? saying he has a crush??
It doesn't seem to me that losing hair has anything to do with losing the ability to have a crush. I would think it would provide for the exact opposite, actually, if anything, given the hormones involved that often provoke hair loss.
Hair loss can come at pretty much any age (even young teenagers), even if it doesn't with everyone. Or are you just hinting at the idea of him being bold enough to suppose he could succeed with this other person (which woman, I might add, has no physical description, other than that she was beautiful, with a black dress and sad eyes—and that could have just been in his eyes, for all we know; she could have been bald, too, heh, heh, and aside from that, there are people who aren't shallow about such things)?
Anyway, sorry for ranting. Nothing personal—I just wanted to get clarify things, and find our what your train of thought was.
Ah, I think I see what you were really getting at, though. It's the terminology, right? Adults don't generally say 'crush' so much as kids (it happens, but rarely—probably more often in the west or perhaps even the south; I don't think this is so odd for certain regions and age-groups, personally; I think it would be more normal for people 35+ years old than for people 24 to 34 years old, to be quite honest, due to the culture differences; whatever the case, it's normal for some and abnormal to others, and if anything is abnormal to a large group of others, it should be considered carefully, and thus you have a point, even if you referenced his age via his baldness).
All right, now on to something else:
> at 35 he was goin bald ---i don't know if the g was omitted accidentally or purposely, but it needs to be there.
In this style of song, I don't think it's unusual to omit this character (especially when speaking it). However, if you do so, you should add an apostrophe to signify the omission (otherwise it'll look like, and be, a typo): i.e. put goin' or going instead of goin
Omitting characters is common in song lyrics (I'm not sure about poetry in general); however, this is usually done to make it fit the song properly, rather than for stylistic purposes only (but I suppose that can happen, too).
Here's a list of a few omissions I've seen a lot (in song lyrics—not English papers):
heav'n = heaven
ev'ry = every
thro' = throughout (I'm guessing they pronounce this the same as through; I wonder why they don't normally spell it through' instead)
pow'r = power
giv'n = given
'tis = it is (this one has been deemed a normal word with this spelling)
th' = the (used in combination with following words that start with a vowel sound: e.g. th'auspicious, th'immortal, th'eternal; ; I would think a slight y sound would go in place of these missing o characters, although logic, rather than practicality, would dictate otherwise)
hov'ring = hovering
cov'ring = covering
o'er = over
flow'r = flower
ev'ning = evening
gen'rous = generous
temp'rate = temperate
lib'ral = liberal
quick'ning = quickening
hast'ning = hastening
op'ning = opening
wand'rer = wanderer
lab'ring = laboring
t' = to (used in combination with following words that start with a vowel sound: e.g. t'adore, t'assuage; I would think a slight w sound would go in place of these missing o characters, although logic, rather than practicality, would dictate otherwise)
A few hundred years ago, people also used to put an apostrophe instead of the e in ed at the end of past tense or transitive verbs to signify that you weren't supposed to pronounce it there, in music. Also, you might note that when there are two words, they often stick them together so they look like one word (as with 'tis). We do this today with contractions (e.g. here's = here is). Putting a two syllable word on one music note generally requires an apostrophe in there somewhere. Some common usages have evolved to omit the apostrophe (though goin' hasn't done it yet): i.e. till (for until); sometimes tis is also seen, but I don't think this is considered correct in modern times. The word wondrous was once spelled wond'rous in music (and perhaps before then it was wonderous)
