OK, I'll be the rascal that bumps this thread.

Anyways, I was thinking about this on my drive to work, since I was listening to some Rachmaninoff so there were no lyrics playing, which meant I had time to think. I think that good lyrics are good for the reasons I mentioned in my first post on the first page, but I also think that what makes a song good is when you really bleed for your song, when you can express genuine emotions. And not your basic, run-of-the-mill anger, sadness, love, etc., but the more complex emotions that we all experience. None of us here experience feelings in such narrow, easily classified outbursts; we feel things somewhere in between, or deeper than just "disappointment" or "regret".

Well, songwriting is a complicated art form, and I guess it's hard to lay down hard and fast rules. Even what I said above I wouldn't apply categorically to every single lyric I've enjoyed.