Howard Ashman was the lyricist for Little Shop Of Horrors and Beauty And The Beast, amongst other musicals.  He was an exceedingly talented lyricist.  I love two of his songs from Little Shop, but I'm most in awe of the title song of Beauty and The Beast. 

What I marvel at most about this lyric is the economy in his lyric writing, and still, immediately--and throughout the song, you know where you are and what you're talking about.  It is also slightly mystical, enchanting, timeless and essential.  Also, each phrase is five syllables, and every section of the song five phrases.  Try writing a lyric sometime using five-syllable phrases, and you'll have renewed appreciation for what he accomplished here.  He left this planet way too soon.  I can only begin to imagine the other treasures we'd have had he lived longer.  Thanks for this sublime lyric, Mr. Ashman (and for your exquisite setting of his lyric, Mr. Menken).  There is a very touching story about his passing vis-a-vis Beauty And The Beast under his Wikipedia entry.  

TALE AS OLD AS TIME,
TRUE AS IT CAN BE
BARELY EVEN FRIENDS,
THEN SOMEBODY BENDS
UNEXPECTEDLY.

JUST A LITTLE CHANGE,
SMALL, TO SAY THE LEAST. 
BOTH A LITTLE SCARED,
NEITHER ONE PREPARED,
BEAUTY AND THE BEAST. 

EVER JUST THE SAME.
EVER A SURPRISE.
EVER AS BEFORE,
EVER JUST AS SURE
AS THE SUN WILL RISE.

TALE AS OLD AS TIME,
TUNE AS OLD AS SONG,
BITTERSWEET AND STRANGE,
FINDING YOU CAN CHANGE,
LEARNING YOU WERE WRONG.

CERTAIN AS THE SUN
RISING IN THE EAST,
TALE AS OLD AS TIME
SONG AS OLD AS RHYME,
BEAUTY AND THE BEAST.

TALE AS OLD AS TIME,
SONG AS OLD AS RHYME,
BEAUTY AND THE BEAST. 

Angela Lansbury's beautiful live rendition: 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GSi58VX9XnA

While "Send In The Clowns" is one of my personal favorite Sondheim songs, I marvel at the brilliance of the lyric writing in "Finishing The Hat" from Sunday In The Park With George. I chose this song especially for these lyrics: "And when the woman that you wanted goes, you can say to yourself, 'Well, I give what I give.' But the woman who won't wait for you knows that however you live, there's a part of you always standing by, mapping out the sky, finishing a hat."

Never have I heard the solitary call to any art (and its excellence) and the conflict it can sometimes cause in interpersonal relationships so beautifully, succinctly and poetically expressed as in this song.

Thanks, Stephen Sondheim. And thanks, Mandy Patinkin for the stunning singing and acting (and impeccable diction) of this song included here.

"Yes, she looks for me--good.
Let her look for me to tell me why she left me--
As I always knew she would.
I had thought she understood.
They have never understood,
And no reason that they should.
But if anybody could...

Finishing the hat,
How you have to finish the hat,
How you watch the rest of the world
From a window
While you finish the hat.

Mapping out a sky,
What you feel like, planning a sky.
What you feel when voices that come
Through the window
Go
Until they distance and die.
Until there's nothing but sky.

And how you're always turning back too late
From the grass or the stick
Or the dog or the light,
How the kind of woman willing to wait's
Not the kind that you want to find waiting
To return you to the night,
Dizzy from the height,
Coming from the hat,
Studying the hat,
Entering the world of the hat,
Reaching through the world of the hat
Like a window,
Back to this one from that.

Studying a face,
Stepping back to look at a face
Leaves a little space in the way like a window,
But to see--
It's the only way to see.

And when the woman that you wanted goes,
You can say to yourself, "Well, I give what I give."
But the woman who won't wait for you knows
That, however you live,
There's a part of you always standing by,
Mapping out the sky,
Finishing a hat...
Starting on a hat...
Finishing a hat...
Look, I made a hat...
Where there never was a hat."

Mandy Patinkin singing "Finishing The Hat" from "Sunday In The Park With George"