Thanks for your reply Jena! It makes more sense now I will start practising with the number of stresses then. That's basically another term for meter right?
So if we're gonna talk about surprising people within the framework of meter... if I'd use a STRESS-unstress for three times in a row, I could go for a unstress-STRESS the fourth time round? Any ideas on what this could mean for rhyme? I mean (stupidly, I don't have an example to show my idea haha)... does landing a rhyme on a stressed syllable all the time cause the lyric to sound a bit childish?
Again, thanks for the reply!